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EAST MEETING WEST is symbolized by antique heads, Hindu and Greek, in this Polishposter announcing a special week of activities to promote knowledge and understandingof the Orient. During this campaign, organized by the Polish National Commission forUnesco, in which the country's press, radio and TV collaborated, more than 200 talks andlectures were given and exhibitions of Oriental art and literature were held. In Warsawan exhibition on the development of Oriental writing and the Oriental book was held at theNational Museum, and Unesco's latest travelling exhibition of colour reproductions, watercolours from the brushes of some the world's greatest Eastern and Western artists, was on

view at the International Press Club. The Polish East-West Week was one of the many co¬ordinated activities through which Member States of Unesco are supporting Unesco'sMajor Project on Mutual Appreciation of Eastern and Western Cultural Values (See page 20)

Ol* THI WO* 10^,^-^à A WINDOW OHM I

CourierDECEMBER 1958

I I T H YEAR

No. 12

CONTENTSPAGE

3 EDITORIAL

4 THE DAYS OF CULTURAL TRIBALISM ARE OVER

By Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

7 ORIENT-OCCIDENT: WHAT ARE THE

CHANCES OF REAL UNDERSTANDING?

By Georges Fradier

10 (2) THE TIME OF DISENCHANTMENT

12 (3) THE NOT-SO-SECRET PASSAGES OF CULTURE

18 DANCERS OF BALI

20 UNESCO'S EAST-WEST MAJOR PROJECT

By Jacques Havet

22 THE ORIENT TODAY AND YESTERDAY

Some plain speaking by an Asian statesmanBy Charles Ammoun

26 TWO CIVILIZATIONS FACING THE SAME CRISIS

By Prof. K. D. Erdmann

28 ALL MEN ARE BROTHERS

Unesco's homage to Mahatma Gandhi

30 THE WORLD IS SICK OF HATRED

Life and thoughts of a great teacher

32 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

33 DR VITTORINO VERONESE, UNESCO'S NEWDIRECTOR-GENERAL

34 FROM THE UNESCO NEWSROOM

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COVER PHOTO

Those who have made up their mindsto listen to Indian, Balinese or Near

Eastern music, instead of lolling in lazyprejudices about "monotonous chanting"and "strange quarter-tones", perceivethat they are entering a musical uni¬verse whose beauties are no harder

to appreciate than those of more fami¬liar realms. It is always wiser to suspendjudgement on men and on cultureswhether the origin is Oriental or Occi¬dental until one has read, seen, listened

and understood. Photo shows a youngdancer from Bali. (See pages 18/19)

© Oliver G. Wackernagel, Basel

The men of our time have been constantly preoccupiedwith the problem of confronting Eastern andWestern cultural values and of finding a basis for

fuller understanding between the peoples of these twoparts of the world.

The changes which have taken place in recent yearsin the relations between these two groups of peoples inevery sphere, and the need recognized -by all nationsto live together and to give to their peaceful relations aspiritual foundation without which they cannot be securehave further emphasized this important trend and led toa restatement -of the terms of the problem.

Mutual understanding between Orient and Occidentstands on the borderline between two categories ofquestions: questions of cultural values, which have arelatively stable content; and problems of relations be¬tween peoples, whose terms and psychological conditionsare in full process of change.

Under its Major Project for the mutual appreciationof Eastern and Western cultural values, Unesco's worktherefore falls into line with an already powerful move¬ment to which it offers a focus and a frame of reference.

It takes care not to separate artificially the two categoriesof cultural and psychological questions. And it calls themost enlightened men of East and West to a work ofjoint reflexion; their presence at the same discussionsand study meetings, in an atmosphere of complete intel¬lectual freedom, demonstrates the "mutual" character ofthe appreciation Unesco seeks to develop. The spirit maybe seen both in the meetings or other initiatives arrangedunder Unesco's own programme, and in those sponsoredby its Member States. The same principles are involved:to promote intensive study of questions with a generalbearing and to direct men's minds towards sympatheticunderstanding of foreign realities, an understanding oftenobstructed by prejudice or resentment.

The Unesco Courier has devoted several issues in the

past to the East-West Major Project of Unesco and tothe mutual appreciation of cultural values (see particu¬larly June 1956; January, June 1957; April, June 1958). Thepresent issue is a further attempt to present some of theimportant problems which face us today on this questionand to survey a few of the activities to which Unescoattaches particular significance.

The Fédération des Coopératives Migros in Zurich hasproduced, in French and German, for the benefit of itsmembers, an album entitled Asia. In its 208 pages hundredsof photographs, 18 colour plates and accompanying shortexplanatory texts (the whole prepared and edited by JeanHerbert of Geneva), the album offers a striking panoramaof the daily life, customs, costumes, people, unid life, art,sculpture, industry and many achievements of the countriesof Asia. The album is highly recommended for referenceas a source of photographic material on Asia. All the photo¬graphs published m the present issue of The UnescoCourier with the following exceptions (.pages 1, 2, 8, 18-19,23, 28, 30 and 33) were taken from this album. The Frenchedition of Asia has been published by Editions AlbinMichel, Paris, and an English edition is being prepared.Full information on the various language editions of theAlbum can be obtained from Fédération des CoopérativesMigros, 152 Limmatstrasse, Zürich 5 (Switzerland).

The Unesco Courier. December 1958

THE DAYS OF CULTURAL

TRIBALISM ARE OVER

K.L.M., Amsterdam

by Sir Sarvepalli RadhakrishnanVice-President of India

he days of cultural tribalism are over;we no more have separate culturaluniverses. East and West have come

together, never to part again, and theymust settle down in some kind of

peaceful coexistence which will eventually grow intoactive, friendly co-operation. That is essential for thefuture of the world, the welfare of the world itself.

There are many ideas about East and West which aresomewhat misleading in character. There are somepeople who argue that the East is mystically minded andthe West is empirical in its outlook, one is more religious,the other is more scientific, but these distinctions havearisen only in recent times. China has contributed to usmany great scientific inventions: the compass, vaccination,paper, printing silk. India has contributed logic, meta¬physics, grammar, mathematics. It is in the last threehundred years that the Asian countries lagged behind,and Western nations made spectacular achievements inscience and technology, so that the contrast is emphasizedby the material backwardness of the Eastern nations andthe progressive character of Western nations.

This is true only for a few centuries; I remember agreat statement made by Lord Acton who tells us he wholooks at the last three hundred years overlooking the lastthree thousand has no proper historical perspective. Eastand West are not categories indicative of different formsof consciousness or" different systems of culture. Theyare aspects of every human being religious and scientific,spiritual and rational. These represent two sides ofhuman nature, but sometimes the emphasis is more onthe religious side, sometimes more on the scientific side.

The distinction is only one of distribution of emphasis.

We have great traditions of Idealism from the time ofSocrates and Plato down to our own day, and we havealso great scientific achievements made by Easternnations. We should not therefore look upon these

expressions, these large generalizations, as more thanworking hypotheses.

Asia is awake, Africa is on the move

But now the East is in ferment; Asia is awake, Africais on the move. They both wish to throw off the deadhand of the past and join in the stream of human

progress. There have been political and economic revolu¬tions and also revolutions of awakened desires, of rousedhopes. If these longings are not satisfied, if we are notable to bring about at least a partial fulfilment of thesevery legitimate aims that Eastern nations today have,there will be no security for peace in this world. If wewant to have enduring peace it is essential for us toemphasize the desirability of satisfying these aspirationsof the nations of Asia and Africa.

I am glad to note that Unesco has contributed a greatdeal by way of giving scientific advice and technical

'assistance to the nations who are demanding develop¬ment. Yet the difficulties are there, and greater atten¬tion will have to be paid if this Organization is to beglobal in its character not merely in its name but in itscontent. This global character will haveto be reflected, at all levels, in all matters

major and minor.

There is another project: the extensionof education in Asian regions. Literacy is

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^D^^HMMMHW| A work of art is

the messenger ofthe hidden lotus

perfume, the in¬

visible flowering

of the spirit

from a Sanscrit text

In the ruins of religious edifices andsometimes In museums, like the one

(left) at Pnom-Penh, Cambodia, flow¬ers, fruit or incense are placedin pious homage before statues,fragments or even empty pedestals.

Werner Bischof © Magnum Photos

essential, we must acquire knowledge, we must learn howwe can keep ourselves healthy, literate, modernist andprogressive. We suffer from disabilities, but I should liketo stress that merely to attain literacy is not enough.

Plato said in Charmides: "It is not life according- to

knowledge which makes men act rightly and be happy,not even if it be knowledge of all the sciences, but onescience only, that of good and evil". Science and techno¬logy, medicine and surgery, industry and commerce willprovide us with the framework of our society, but withoutthe knowledge of good and evil they will fail us. Thatknowledge is the science which enables us to take interestin the pursuit of truth and in curing the ills of sufferinghumanity.

One man's suffering is all humanity's

Our intellectual achievements are great and our tech¬nological advance has been outstanding, yet we liveon the brink of fear, at the edge of a precipice and

in perpetual fear of falling over it. We do need thereforethat this Organization should give ampler meaning tocertain common concepts which belong to all traditions ofthe world the dignity of man, the need for compassion,understanding.

We constantly speak of the inward presence of thedivine in the human being, and all the great religions arean invitation to human beings to grow and change theirnature; though our nature may be limited, we are capableof intimate unlimited developments. They tell us thathuman nature need not be what it happens to be at thepresent moment. . There is a capacity for self-renewal inthe human being. This assertion of the spirit in manis the hope of the world.

Have we not rid ourselves of many pestilences whichdevastated humanity, of cannibalism and head-hunting?There was a time when we thought that God would bepleased if we sacrificed children on the altar. We thoughtreligion would progress and expand by massacres andinquisitions. We have grown out of all those ideas, soalso the idea that War is essential is something that wecan outgrow. There is no doubt that if human natureasserts itself, that if the spirit in man is given scope, thisgreatest pestilence of all ages will also be driven out byhuman effort.

Man is invincible if his spirit asserts itself. He hasendurance and the capacity for compassion. He canstand up and say, '"I will not bow down to the cir¬cumstances, I am more powerful than the material forceswhich confront us". Man is higher than the forces whichoverwhelm him. If this principle of the inward presenceof spirit is taken by us as an assertion of human dignity,we will realize the interwovenness of human life. We will

take seriously the Christian injunction to bear one an¬other's burdens.

If one man suffers, the whole of humanity suffers, forall humanity has become one today. It is to the develop¬ment of the oneness of mankind that We must make the

great contribution. We are passing through trying times,our civilization is being tested; it may be destroyed orrenewed. What will happen to it depends on ourselves,not on our stars nor upon the impersonal forces whichsurround us. It depends on the spirit of man, on the willof man to take these things seriously. I have no doubtthat we shall march forward and that Unesco will

contribute to that cultural solidarity which is theessential basis of enduring peace.


ORIENT-OCCIDENTWhat are the chances of real understanding?

by Georges Fradier

Creation,

not possession

Action,

not gain

Self-mastery,

not conquest

Lao Tsé

Karl Machatchek, Paris

eople often hear "the East" spoken of as an infinitely complex enigma which only specialists canattempt to decipher. It seems to be made up of vast continents unknown seas and enormousnations which used to be little heard of, especially as they were often considered merely vagueand picturesque provinces of empires whose capitals lay in the West. In it live an incredible

number of extremely varied peoples, speaking a multitude of languages (which are printed in incompre¬hensible characters). These strange inhabitants are. steeped in philosophic, religious and literary tradi¬tions which are at the same time quite ancient, and yet curiously alive.

When Westerners were at school, all they were taught about these religions and cultures was the factof their existence, and even this was usually brought in merely as a footnote to a chapter of ancient his¬tory or elementary philosophy. Monuments had been photographed. Statues and paintings had beenbrought to Western museums and shops. These objects might be regarded as curious or moving; they

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Work is love

in visible

form

Khalil Gibran

Throughout Asia, the artisanhas always been an artist,and the same trades have

been handed down from

father to son for generationafter generation. The articlewrought by skilful handswhether fabric or pottery,garment or jewel, is fashion¬ed with great respect forthe material used, with alove of form and with a

profound grasp of techni¬ques. Streamers floating inthe wind (photos right) aresilk strips drying after beingdyed, near Kyoto, Japan.


might even be admired. But they were considered partof the past, and of a rather abstract past at that.

The history of these peoples? Western schoolbooksrarely mentioned it except in relation to the West. TheArabs, for instance, appeared just in time to invadeSpain and fight the Crusaders in the Holy Land, afterwhich they left the stage and went back into the void.India emerged from a long, legendary, fairy-tale nightto be exploited from the sixteenth to the eighteenthcenturies by a number of trading companies. China escap¬ed from its dreary isolation to welcome the "civilizers"of the Opium War; and Japan, symbolized for two cen¬turies as an armoured Samurai killer of Portuguesemonks, was given two paragraphs under the date 1853.

Thus our Ignorance can often be explained or excused.But it can no longer be tolerated. It appears dangerousat a time when real politics are planetary, when thewords "fate of humanity" are no longer used exclusivelyby moralists but are common in the newspapers in whichthe conscience and the anxiety of our time are expressedto a greater or lesser degree.

Where does East end & West begin?

Everyone knows, everyone senses, that peace, generalprogress and world prosperity may depend to a largeextent on the development, the decisions and the

accomplishments of certain countries that many of usstill locate rather vaguely "in Asia", or "in Africa", butthat no one any longer dares call exotic. The profoundsolidarity of all peoples has become a truism; and evenif one thinks chiefly of economic solidarity one feels theneed to know more about one's neighbours, near or far,than just their industrial and commercial status. Manyare Wondering: "What are they really like, these nationswith whom we are henceforth linked for better or for

Georges Fradier, a French author and Journalist and a staff memberof Unesco, has for several years made special studies of the problemsof East-West understanding.

8

worse? What may be expected of them? How do theylook at the world?"

But this last question implies a far deeper curiositythan that aroused now and then by casual newspaperreading or concern for the future. To wonder about theviews and opinions of a people is to want to know thebroad lines of its history, its living conditions, its socialstructures, its religious attitudes, its aspirations.

It would be an exaggeration to say that the variedpeoples who make up the West know one another reallywell. Their misunderstandings have often been deplored,and, when it comes to culture, they are likely to show aprovincialism which leads them to be rather neglectfulof their neighbours' values. Yet these peoples neverconsider themselves very distant from one another;within Europe or the Americas they see no cultural barrierdifficult to cross if they will take a little trouble.

But when these Westerners who so strongly sense theirown basic unity turn toward one or another of the peoplesof the East, they are completely at a loss. All the keysthey have to open doors inside their own West seemuseless where the lands of Africa or Asia are concerned.Over there, as they see it, the languages, beliefs, customsand races have the peculiarity of being "Oriental"whichmust mean that they have nothing in common with theWest, that they stem from absolutely different humanthemes. To learn anything about them one would haveto start from zero, to set out on a long road of hard study.To these Westerners, the East is another world. It isanother blocnot hostile, certainly, but radically diffe¬rent, closed, mysterious. They know that it is possibleto stay there for a long time without understandinganything; certain travellers have furnished the livingproof of this. The realization that more than half ofall human beings are Asiatic, Oriental, is not always anencouragement to pierce the mystery; on the contrary,it may have the opposite effect.

East and West are vague terms. Where does one endand the other begin? Yet the words must have some reality,


- -

Oliver G. Wackernagel, Basel

at least in people's minds, since they have been used for solong without being worn out, since the "East-West prob¬lem" has existed. But if we admit that they evoke basicdifferences, and that very often we can say, "This isOriental, that is not," then We must name the criteriafor our judgements. At least five criteria come to mind:geography, races, languages, religions and social forms.

Bengali not more Oriental than Gaelic

We must not put too much trust in "natural" or "ideal"frontiers. The difference between East and Westis certainly not a question of a few degrees of

longitude east or West of any particular meridian. Fromthe point of view of an Italian, Marrakesh is certainly inthe East, Sydney in the West. "Natural frontiers" shiftlike the others. To Athenians of the fifth century b.c. theEast meant Asia and the Persian Empire. A thousand yearslater Athens itself, and Byzantium and Alexandria, hadbecome part of the East. As for the Persians, they continu¬ed, as for centuries past, to deal with Turkish horsemenand Chinese traders: to them, these were the Orientals.

Shall we say that today "Eastern" means essentially"non-European?" Hardly, for the connotations generallylinked with the term "Eastern" would not exist in mostof Africa except those parts where the Moslem religionis dominant or the Arabic language is spoken; and"Eastern" certainly does not include the territories occupi¬ed by the American Indians or the Polynesians althoughthese are "non-European." In general, we must admitthat The East includes Asia and North Africa, withoutstopping to wonder why this Asia includes the Celebesand not Madagascar and especially without supposingthat a Syrian, a Kirghiz, a Javanese or a Tibetan feelshimself a member^of a tight "Asiatic" or "Oriental"community.

Races? There is one called yellow, rich in variedfamilies, which has always lived principally in Asia and

the Far East. Beyond this we cannot be specific: it isclear that races are as inextricably mixed in Asia as inEurope. Furthermore, the same races may often befound in both continents. Anthropologists talk aboutMediterraneans, Caucasians or Malays; they measureskulls and separate curly hair from straight. Whatconclusions may be drawn from these uncertain classi¬fications? That the fishermen of Latakia resemble those

of Barcelona, and the peasants of the Punjab are muchlike the Serbs? And that in the picturesque field ofappearance, bearing, gestures and costumes the differencesare much more striking between North and South thanbetween East and West? Questions and speculations likethese will not get us very far.

There are also languages proper to Asia: Chinese, Japa¬nese, the Tibeto-Burmese group, the Dravidlan group,and also Turkish and the Semitic languages, if you will,though they are not confined to Asia. But from Lake Vanto the Deccañ Plateau, more than three hundred millionpersons speak languages classified as Indo-Iranian orIndo-European, related to all the Latin, Slavic and Ger¬manic idioms. The East therefore cannot be defined as

the territory of Oriental languages; our languages, fromGreek to Gaelic, have no more and no less Oriental anorigin than does Bengali; and two old nations of Europewhich speak idioms known as Finno-Ugrian, as un-Aryanas possible, are no less Western for that.

As for beliefs, it is not superfluous to mention thespread of a religion which defines itself as universal, aspread which sometimes preceded, sometimes accompaniedEuropean commercial or colonial expansion in the East.It is clear, nevertheless, that in so far as religious tra¬ditions model the culture of peoples and the face ofnations, the presence of several millionChristians does not prevent Japan, China,India, Viet-Nam or Indonesia, for instance,from being countries of "Oriental"religions.

Furthermore, the most venerable beliefs,

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the most deeply rooted cults, do not necessarily conferan exceptional character on countries situated in a largercultural ensemble: an Adriatic country may have amajority of Moslems without belonging to the East forthat reasonjust as Lebanon, for example, derives aspecial personality from its Christian majority, but apersonality which manifests itself in an Arab context. Asfor small minorities, fervent and influential though theymay be, it seems impossible nowadays for them to changeperceptibly the climate of a civilization. If there were amillion English Buddhists in Great Britain, that Wouldnot make one Oriental the more.

On the other hand, everyone remembers that Christian¬ity was in the beginning just as "Eastern" a religion asIslam or as Judaism, source of both the others. It isobvious that the faith which was gradually to animatea new Europe seemed at first, to the conscious citizensof the Roman Empire, simply one more exotic cult (incom¬patible, furthermore, with wholesome traditions) amongall those that exalted Orientals were coming to preach inthe West.

It may be replied,, not without reason, that in thetwentieth century th'e Christian churches consider theirdoctrines radically different from the beliefs most gener¬ally held, let us say, in India, Tibet or Ceylon. But itshould be added that the same position would also beaffirmed, in the very same terms, by the Moslems. It islikewise true that if a Japanese speaks of Oriental reli¬gions he is probably not thinking of Islam any more thanof Christianity.

All in all, the criteria on which We presume to foundso many judgements seem somewhat confused. Thereremains one, however, which is sometimes presented 'assurer or more tangible: that of social progress, generallylinked with industrial progress. If this yardstick wereapplied, the East would be a vast realm of under-indus¬trialized nations in which agrarian civilizations andfeudal or patriarchal societies still prevail. And this,incidentally, is why we see so many generous persons, inEurope and still more In America, explaining to Easternersthe advantages of modern techniques and the virtues ofdemocracy. It would seem, however, that these lessons

are addressed to a global, abstract audience, and never toone particular people or another. For if there still existsa very small number (among the weakest) whose systemof government does not correspond to accepted popularnorms, there is almost no country that has not beentouched or permeated by an industrial revolution which,in some cases, took place a long time ago.

Nobody is entirely unaware of the production of theJapanese or Chinese steel works, or of the textile factoriesof Egypt or Pakistan. But in the imaginary portraitsmost Westerners have of Eastern nations, these industrialrealities seem to count for less than the relics of legendand the survivals of the past. On the road to Trombay,the Indian centre for nuclear research, a tourist Willphotograph buffalo carts. On his return he will describethe buffalo carts, going into ecstasies over their poeticantiquity. He will forget the atomic reactors; he hasreason to suspect that it is not feudal obeisance andcaste taboos that make them work. In a word, they donot fit in with his picture of "eternal India."

Thus the economic lag of certain Asian countries (andnot of all) takes on enormous proportions in the picturewe habitually paint for ourselves of the East. This exag¬geration flatters the good conscience of a West proud ofits technical advances, and likewise flatters certain ofits sentimental tastes which are also nourished by novelsand films.

A great many Westerners have an avowed or secrethankering for a peaceful rural society, for human contactswithout clashes or surprises within the reassuring frame¬work of village harmony and family hierarchies for asimple life, slow and regular, with deeprooted customs andunchangeable beliefs. Not finding this idyllic existenceat home, they are prone to look for it in a legendaryEast; and the contradictions that a real East wouldoppose to them might only disturb their dreams thosedreams that are also called prejudices. So in their nostal¬gia for some kind of antique purity, quite honest travellers,even men of science, cannot always resist the temptationto identify the East with a patriarchal handicraft system.If the latter has disappeared from a country, the wholenation seems to have betrayed them to wallow in mercan¬tile regimentation.

From the great discoveriesto the time of disenchantment

Since the "great discoveries," the rise of seafaringnations and conquering commerce, and the power¬ful European expansion in the Atlantic as well asin central Asia and the Indian Ocean, contacts bet¬

ween East and West have become a daily affair. On May29, 1453, the Turkish power was installed in Europe formore than four centuries, and on May 18, 1498, Vasco deGama landed in Calicut. Peoples, rather than individuals,were mutually to discover one another. The West arrivedin more and more numerous successive or permanentdelegations, with differing methods but with curiouslysimilar aims. In its Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, British,French or Russian species, persons in Ormuzd, Goa,Manila, Delhi, Canton, Rangoon, Jakarta and Pekingwatched the advance of Europe.

In most cases, these mass revelations were terriblydisappointing. As the peoples involved discovered theirdiversity, they saw their differences through a magnifyingglass but denied all justification for these differences;each met the other and was exasperated to find him"other."

The merchants, missionaries, soldiers, contractors andjudges who landed from Europe were in a hurry; impa¬tient to buy, to sell, to build, to preach, to sign and tomake others sign. To understand? That takes patience.In the eyes of the Indian or the Malay, these agitated

to

and enterprising Westerners had not come to understandor appreciate. They seemed to be overly aware of thedifferences' in his customs, his clothes, his beliefs, his food,but were not the slightest bit interested in the reasonsfor this way of life, this religion in his reasons no morethan they were in his language, his songs, his books. Onthe contrary they preferred, from the start, to teach himtheir practices and their doctrines all beautiful and goodthings, no doubt, but which had an unfortunate tendencyto be imposed in the name of one or another far-offmonarch, or as a clause in a doubtful contract, and ina spirit devoid of tolerance.

Under these conditions, there was room for negotiation,astuteness, political or military solutions, but not for theunderstanding of cultures. It was precisely the cultures

the art, the intellectual traditions, the history, thespiritual life that the visitors refused to consider exceptin the most superficial fashion, so that they might callthem unintelligible.

There were some outstanding exceptions, of which themost notable, up to the nineteenth century, were probablycertain Catholic missionaries. Every time the Jesuitscould accomplish their work freely in India, for example,or in China, and more briefly in Japan real human, andfruitful, relations were established. These Italian, Ger¬man or French priests knew how to make an honest


w>|

W

hiiiff*.

In Asia, individualism finds expression 'mainly in the higher planes of spiritua- Llity, religion and thought. In everyday Porganization the dominant element is a Iprofound awareness of group solidarity. I.Here, workers devote their free -day Pwithout pay to public work near Pekin. I

(¡5 Fernand Gigon, Geneva I

effort to understand the refinements of the Chinese and

Japanese civilizations, and the elevation of Hindu thought.They conceived their mission not as that of masters, butas that of collaborators, seeking to adapt the moral richesof Christianity to the old traditions of their new lands.

In India certain of them wrote works in Marathi orTamil which still figure among the classics of Indianletters. In China their scientific contribution was parti¬cularly valuable, and while Japan was still cloistered,in the beginning of the nineteenth century, its astrono¬mers secretly imported the mathematical treatises thatthese Jesuits had composed in Chinese in their Manchuobservatories. Only in a very recent period Was thiscollaboration renewed and developed, thanks especially tothe rise of the studies in philology, history and philosophicalcriticism carried on by the scholars known as Orientalists.

Among the European and American students Whoharnessed themselves to the essential task of exploringthe literary patrimony of the peoples of the Eastinwhom most of their compatriots were interested onlythrough a desire to exploit material wealth severalbecame celebrated and exercised an immediate influenceon the poets and philosophers who read their work. Theyrevealed forgotten eras, treasures of thought and lyricismwhose existence had never been suspected before.

But in spite of the admirable work of the Orientalists,in spite of the new horizons they opened to cosmopolitanculture, Europe did not seem in the least to believe thattheir studies had given it any more understanding of thecontemporary Hindus, Iranians or Chinese.

Yet we must remember that it is probably impossibleto penetrate the literature, art and culture pf a peoplewhose values one denies from the start, and to whom onehardly concedes the right to affirm its personality on anyplane. Under such conditions a people can be observedonly as an object; one can only stare with curiosity at

its peculiarities or mysteries. The political and economicrelations of the West with Asia and Africa were such,for 150 years, that it was rarely possible to talk on thoseterms of brotherhood and mutual esteem which are

essential If understanding is to be reached. The youthof Bengal, Teheran or Sumatra studied in the Westernfashion; they learned that not only mathematics andchemistry but also all contemporary literature, all modernthought, were Western. A few Europeans delighted inThe Tale of Genji, but millions of Japanese read Shakes¬peare, Gibbon, Goethe, Dickens and Zola.

And yet Japan had never lost its freedom. Many otherpeoples, living under various regimes that were dependentin law or in fact, felt that in matters of culture as wellas of government they were denied the right to speak.They were encouraged to learn (sometimes); they werenever asked to teach, never asked to explain themselves.The most they could do was to give information to suchInvestigators as deigned to ask them questions. For therest, specialists would marshal all the resources ofWestern erudition to study their jargon, their folkloreand their old monuments. Then in the end, in spite ofso many efforts, functionaries high and low, tourists andnovelists would complain that they could not understandthese people sometimes refined, sometimes backward,always secretive, dissimulatlve, suspicious.

Any Easterner who might read these lines would seecertain quite concrete historical situations reflected inthem. Many Westerners, too, know that such situationswere at the origin of a great number of resigned judge¬ments on "psychological barriers" and on the "impene¬trable threshold" of various "Asian mentalities."

This time of disappointment has not been entirely for¬gotten. Yet the men of our century have generally recog¬nized a simple truth often neglected by their fathers:that peoples, like individuals, can understand one anotheronly as equals.

II

B Not-so-secret passages

of art, music and letters!n the effort at understanding to which Unesco invites

us an educational enterprise in the broadest sense ofthe word there is no place for mirages. What we aretrying to know and understand are cultural values,

and these values belong to nations, not to blocs. That iswhy it is wise to begin by dismissing the idea of an"East" which prevents us from seeing the real countries,the living peoples of Asia and Africa.

To the degree in which we are the heirs of past gene¬rations, histories and history books are inevitable. Goodworks of reference can serve to fill the gaps in incompleteor badly balanced teaching. But such books cannotreplace more modest volumes Written by nationals of thecountries in question. While it is useful to know thebroad lines of the history of China as it unfolded in the

framework of a universal evolution, we need also to learnsomething of the history of China as the Chinese them¬selves see it, and as they present it to others. For pastevents, however important they may have been, count lessthan the memory of them which has been kept, orrediscovered, and less than the interpretation given bythe guardians of that memory. In this sense, "historicalheritages" mean nothing except in a popular perspective.

As for the great religions which, by definition, addressthemselves to men and women of all times, no one wouldthink of questioning them through the intermediary ofinformers without authority. Obviously it is not neces¬sary to be a Christian or a Buddhist to describe aceremony at Lourdes or Bangkok, or to analyse St. Paul'sGreek or the Pali of the Buddhist canon. But neither

Dominique Darboiç (Q Dalmas Pans

In Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist Asia, music, singing anddancing are chiefly ways of attuning oneself to the rhythmof the worl d and the music of the spheres. The theatre of

12

the Orient may well be compared with the Christian mysteriesfor both have a religious setting and both relate the divine sagaof beings whose sacred character is thus indefinitely renewed.


reporting nor literary criticism can presume the right topenetrate the spirit of a cult, of a faith, of a church.And here again, one can really understand only from theinside. The sacred books of Buddhism and of Islam are

easy to find. Furthermore, Buddhists and Moslems ofour day frequently compose, for the benefit of outsiders,the sort of commentaries and biographies which Westernwriters used to undertake.

For Hinduism, the documents are still more abundant,in varying degrees of popularization. Among them, onemay easily surmise that it is often advantageous tochoose works by Hindu authors, who generally do notpretend to reveal mysteries or advise practices in theinspired tones which certain of their European proselytesused to adopt. Fortunately the best Orientalists today,on both sides of the Atlantic, are conscientious translatorsand faithful interpreters Who do not believe themselveseither superior or inferior to the spiritual groups theyare presenting. It may be regretted only that theirworks reach so few readers.

The situation is the same where philosophies andmysticisms are concerned, if one distinguishes them fromreligious teachings properly speaking. Whether one isinterested in Confucian thought or Taoism, the Vedantictheses of Shankara or Nimbarka, the metaphysics ofal-Farabi or the visionary accounts of Avicenna, thebasic texts exist and are within the comprehension of



In Japan, writes A. Coomaraswamy, the distinguished Orientalist, theart which seems the most spontaneous to the eye is the product ofthe most meticulous and formal techniques... perhaps It is the pro-foundest inspiration that ¡s not merely most at home with the mostprecise forms, but actually needs them. Above, Japanese flute players.

Westerners; they are no more or less hermetic than thewritings of Malebranche, Berkeley or Hegel.

Novels, poetry and the drama obviously present fewerobstacles. Today as yesterday, every time a Westernreader has been able to acquaint himself with authentictexts, he has drawn joy and profit from them. Unfortu¬nately good translations are still all too few, and despitesome real commercial successes, like those of the worksof Arthur Waley (1), those which do exist are rarelypublished in a format and at a price which would makethem popular. But several publishers are at presentmaking notable efforts in this respect, and the field Isone in which Unesco is playing an important role throughits Collection of Representative Works; an effort is beingmade to enrich the Oriental series of this collection asrapidly as possible.

Doors to Japan's literary treasures

It is a mistake, then, to give up the search for goodtranslations while comforting oneself with the thoughtthat in 10 years the literatures of Asia will be more

easily accessible than they are today. There are so manyreaders who are hardly beginning to be concerned withthese literatures that it would be superfluous to pity themfor lacking the necessary books.- To take a singleexample in a language reputed to be difficult, and whichtranslators began to tackle only in a relatively recentperiod, Japanese poetry, drama, essays and novels arereally at the disposal of millions of Westerners who donot even seem to suspect it.

In English, French and German and to a lesser degreein other European languages these Westerners may readthe principal anthologies of poetry, from the Man'yoshuto the Six Collections; the novelists and memorialists ofthe Heian period (Murasaki Shikibu, Sei Shonagon); thestory-tellers and essayists from Kamo No Chomei toYoshida Kenko; the great writers of the seventeenthcentury; novelists like Saikaku; poets like Basho; dra¬matists like Chikamatsu Montaemon;curious writers, of the eighteenth centurylike Uëda Akinari, and so on. As forcontemporaries, several poets have beenpresented in the West; there also existtranslations of several plays and sometwenty novels.

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next page

But whereas the mysteries were tied tothethemeofthe Passion,Asia's theatre finds inexhaustible inspiration in its mythology.Above, left .Chinese actress ; right, gong orchestra of Indo-China.

(1) Arthur Waley's work on the Tao T? Ching, The Way and its Power,has just appeared in the United States in a paper-backed edition publishedby the Grove Press (Unesco Collection of Representative Works).

13

With a son, one

conquers the three

worlds. A grandson

is the key to eternity.

Mahabharaya

TWO FACES OF ASIA. When life is goodthe smiles of mother and child reveal a joythat words can never express. Around the .world human needs are Inexorably alike-love, food, clothing, work, sleep and relaxa¬tion. When these are met, life is indeed

good. But Asia also shows the twisted, pain¬ful face of hunger. Only a decade ago ¡t wasfound that one-third of mankind was con¬

suming three-quarters of the world's foodproduction. Asia, with 55% of the world'speople, only disposed of 1 7%. Since thenfood crops have increased but so have popu¬lations. Famine is still a grim reality.

Victor Sassoon, Bangkok

It must be admitted that these publications areinsufficient and it should be noted in passing that theyfar from equal in number the Japanese translations fromthe literatures of Europe- and America. But what shouldbe emphasized is the resources that they already offer,since this quickly-jotted-down list contains key worksthat a Westerner has the right to demand if he is notto "ignore Japan."

It must be agreed that the best-beaten route to thecultures of the East, as to those of the West, remains thepath through books, even though works of art, song andthe dance would speak a more direct and more attractivelanguage where many people are concerned. In spite ofthe great ease of travel of which the twentieth centuryis so proud, theatrical companies do not move aboutmuch and, like musicians, hardly visit any foreign citiesexcept the capitals. And in spite of the progress ofphotography and electronics, good reproductions of paint¬ings and sculpture in the field of Asian art are as rarecommercially as are good recordings of classical Orientalmusic.

Aside from such material obstacles, though, is it reallymore difficult to become interested in Chinese paintingthan in the Chinese novel, in Turkish ceramics than inTurkish poetry? Does it take more effort to acquire anIntroduction to the music of Eastern peoples than to learnsomething about their literary works? Those Westernerswho have made up their minds to listen to Indian, Bali-nese or Near Eastern music, instead of lolling in lazy pre-

14

judlces about "monotonous chanting" and "strange quar¬ter-tones," perceive that they are entering a musical uni¬verse which though it is certainly not that of Mozart, hasbeauties which are no harder to appreciate than those ofPierrot Lunaire or the Marteau sans Maître. Once thethreshold has been crossed, no one will find insurmount¬able difficulties in obtaining the best records producedin Benares, Cairo, Istambul or Rabat pending the greatlyincreased number of concerts which are to be organizedin the West by the Association for Oriental Music andthe International Council of Music.

' On the other hand, it is doubtful if any similarsociety will succeed in making known and appreciated toan equal degree the innumerable masterpieces whichsculptors, painters, architects, engravers, weavers, pottersand goldsmiths have piled up through the centuries fromKorea to Morocco. Yet many of these treasures enrichthe great museums of Europe and America; severalWestern capitals have even housed them in special insti¬tutions Where the public may go at leisure to study six¬teenth-century Persian tapestries or Afghan ivories orTibetan painting.

But the public does not rush to get in. The audiencethat would be reached, even in small towns and villages,by unambitious exhibitions particularly of good repro¬ductions of paintingswould be more numerous; and, asexperience has shown, it would generally be enthusiastic.In this field there is a great task to be undertaken byuniversities, museums and youth movements; we must


Suml Janah, Calcutta

hope that the publication of reproductions and inexpen¬sive albums will be further developed, and that the prac¬tice of holding travelling exhibitions may become general.But we may conclude, even now, that although theavenues leading to a knowledge of the arts of the East arenot so broad as those which lead to its literatures, theyare not, any more than the latter, closed or secret.

Even if he consents to identify his values with those ofhis nation, no man confines himself to those expressed inthe works and the monuments of the past. He mayrespect these latter, cite them very frequently or vene¬rate them, without, for this reason, regarding them asthe total explanation of his acts or the inspiration of hiswhole life. So for anyone who wants to understand thepeoples of the East to about the same degree as heunderstands his neighbours, a knowledge of their culturalhistory is indispensable. Yet a knowledge of their con¬temporary development is no less necessary.

In other words, Asia and Africa are situated in time,and we are now in the second half of the twentieth cen¬

tury. Up to a certain point the prestige of ancient litera¬tures, the silhouettes of mosques, pagodas, Angkors andBoro Budors form a screen between the Western observerand the modern countries which nevertheless live on

other things besides these books and these edifices. Thisword "modern" shocks people who prefer to imagine anEast opposed to machines, one which is becoming indus¬trialized in spite of itself under the influence ofWesterners of the atomic age.

The reality Is very different. Certain countries of theEast have a great lag to make up; but already theirprogress is much more rapid than the experts were pre¬dicting ten or fifteen years ago. In this field, changeshardly obey cultural imperatives; they follow the rhythmof investments. On the. other hand, it is true that allthe countries of the East do not enjoy the techniques andthe social advantages which characterize "twentieth-cen¬tury civilization". But in varying degrees one may saythe same of all the .countries of Europe and America,without exception. Even the richest and best equippedhave their forgotten lands, their anachronistic survivalsor their underdeveloped classes. And if we are talkingabout the atomic age, no nation lives in the atomic age ;none yet possesses the new installations or the equalityin abundance that ought to accompany this age ofhuman maturity.

Westerners know perfectly well that Tokyo, Delhi,Peking, Cairo, Singapore and Karachi are living in thesame century as New York, London and Berne. It is notsure that they like to think of these poetic-sounding capi¬tals as cities as proudly modern as their own sometimesas sadly modern, depending on the hour of the day andthe particular neighbourhood. Yet nocountry has a monopoly on reinforcedconcrete, colossal hotels, traffic jams, neonsigns or Industrial suburbs. But must wedepend on our imagination to know whatEastern cities are like? How can we guess

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15

what Chinese metal-workers of Japanese salesgirls doafter work? What kind of homes do they go back to?What kind of hopes?

How can we see this total present-day picture: urbanand industrial life, customs, street scenes and familygatherings, fields and workshops, popular fairs and nation¬al holidays, the atmosphere in temples and schools?Unless we are to set out on a ceaseless round of travel,we have to depend on the mass information media, espe¬cially the press and the cinema; and it seems certainthat we shall be able to count on them to fulfil thisessential task.

Newspapers publish articles on one Eastern country oranother, and many of these reports are excellent: theyprovide a wealth of detail set in an intelligible whole;they furnish valuable information concerning living con¬ditions, political opinions, economic prospects. Illustrat¬ed magazines have published admirable portraits of afamily, a village, a countryside. Unfortunately thesesuccesses cannot erase the memory of other writings, toobrilliant to be honest, whose authors Were obviously lessanxious to inform than to please. In these cases onlythe strangest and most exceptional characteristics of apeople, or a city, hold the limelight; the authors seem tofear that they would bore their readers if they used themore subdued colours which generally convey the ordi¬nary existence of people and countries.

Troops of bagpipers & Cossack choirs

Sometimes those who want to understand the Easteven need to be warned against certain documen¬taries which are both fascinating and scientific:

ethnographic films whose character is likely to be sadlymisunderstood by the public. For the average cinema-goer may have no way of knowing that the Bedouins intheir tents do not represent "the Arabs", or that the tiger-hunters of Assam do not represent India any more thanthe luxuriously armed tourist they are escorting repre¬sents the United States of America. On a less scientificlevel, the folklore of many a pleasant short fllm maysuggest nations peopled exclusively by young templedancers or tambourine players to spectators who wouldfeel indignant if Scotland were symbolized exclusively bya troop of bagpipers or the Union of Soviet SocialistRepublics by a Cossack choir.

Western countries never appear either very distant orvery self-effacing to the inhabitants of Eastern citiesendowed with American automobiles and enriched with

products of the mechanical, electrical, chemical and tex¬tile industries of most of the countries of Europe. In sofar as the Asian and African nations are in process ofdevelopment, and count on foreign aid to hasten theireconomic equipment, they unleash intense competitionwhich, needless to say, goes far beyond simply mercantileaims; there is no exporting nation which does not showerthem with more or less discreet publicity, or provide themwith goodwill ambassadors or technical missions, some¬times in impressive numbers. The inhabitant of anIndonesian, Thai, Indian, Persian or Arabian city maythus have the feeling that the West is With him everyday, garish or raucous, on posters, on the roads, in theshops, in the cinema. To him the idea of studying thisWest more closely may seem faintly amusing.

It is clear that trade, consumer goods and even propa¬ganda do not in any case embody the essential of culturalvalues. But to the man In the street, this truth does notalways appear to be self-evident. Cultivated people, onthe other hand, will admit it willingly that goes withoutsaying and yet their difficulties are none the less great.Some of them, who have studied in secondary schools

16

and universities of a purely Western type, and Who areas familiar with Western civilization as with their owncountry, have trouble realizing that they are, after all,exceptional, and that the problem of the appreciation offoreign cultures has not yet been touched where most oftheir compatriots are concerned. Others seem to feelthat they know the West thoroughly because they havelearned a European language. Almost all meet discourag¬ing obstacles in the history of Wars and colonization: itis sometimes hard to distinguish between the themes ofpolitics and those of culture, and there are in all longi¬tudes people who prefer to close their eyes and ears tothe literature or the arts of a nation of whose governmentthey disapprove.

Oriental serenity vs. Rock 'n* roll

Such factors explain a certain self-satisfaction, a cer¬tain attitude of ironic retreat. Intellectual curiosityregarding the West is surely not the most prevalent

virtue in all Eastern circles. The consequences of thismay be noted in the sweeping judgements Which, forexample, condemn the "Western spirit" whose notoriousmaterialism is assumed to characterize Europe and theAmericas from end to end. To materialism a scandalous

sequence of other "isms" is usually added: imperialism,alcoholism, and so on. A West full of unemployed workers,brash militarists, juvenile gangsters and adulterous wivessurely cannot have much to teach.

If a man thinks he knows everything about the Wester¬ners' will to power and their basic anxiety, he does notask whether something more than mere appetite doesnot lie at the origin of this fever, this spirit of conquest.If he identifies the West with its industrial techniques, hesupposes that it will go on producing machines and moremachines useful, dangerous or amusing; he does notstop to consider that intellectual, social and even spiritualdiscipline may explain a scientific progress that has beendeveloping, after all, for 400 years.

In other words, to the naïve ignorance of many Wester¬ners concerning the East there corresponds, where morethan one Easterner is concerned, a partial acquaintancewith the West, insufficient to prevent serious errors as tocultural values. Certain critics, for example, cannot

In many parts of Asia, the transformation ofthe economy, which in Europe was spreadover two centuries, is being effected in thespace of a few years. Photo shows integratedmetallurgical combine operating at Kusniets.


resist the temptation to oppose the serenity of the Chi¬nese peasant to the vogue for rock'n' roll, a venerableswami to Hitler, the atomic bomb to Iraq's sanctuaries ofKerbela. It may be hoped that the cultivated public inthe East will feel more and more called to explore andappreciate the deeper realities where the Western peoplesare concerned a history, a life of the mind which arenot revealed either in propaganda or in the export trade.

If Europeans and Americans may be advised to try tounderstand a young and lucid East, stripped of its pictu-resqueness and "immobility", then Easterners might welltake as a temporary theme a mysterious West, chargedwith ancient contradictions and often fonder of pureresearch than of wealth and comfort. It is not a

question of substituting one cliché for another, but oflooking for the almost secret truths that are hiddenunder apparently incontrovertible appearances. Thus,for example, a man who thinks he has an adequate pic¬ture of the United States would do well to forgetHollywood for a moment and turn his attention to Ame¬rican poets and American monks; the number of the firstas well as the second may seem surprising. From an¬other point of view, an Easterner will doubtless find it pro¬fitable to try to find out what romantic German musicmeans to the millions of men and women, from Moscowto Buenos Aires, who listen to it with such tireless fervor.

In the West as in the East, everyone educated enoughto measure the extent of his own ignorance ought to beable to replace accepted ideas with the personal studythat is in every case deserved by other peoples... theirbooks, their paintings, their music, their systems ofthought, their ways of living. Schools, publishers, andvarious national and international organizations willdoubtless be called on to furnish the means and the

opportunity for this study. Naturally, each of us willremember that it is always Wise to suspend judgement

on men and on cultures until one has read, seen,listened and understood.

One final question: If We follow Unesco's suggestions ifwe try to see the nations of the East in their historicalreality, and to understand their cultures as broadly as ispossible for a non-specialist who is simply curious aboutthe works and the ways of his fellows if we do this, whatwill we have achieved? What will be the result of these

explorations?

One might solemnly reply that we Will have contributed

to the coming of a peaceful civilization, global, and fra¬ternal. That is possible, after all. But it is more certainthat there are some very simple qualities to be acquired,some virtues which are not so common: modesty, forexample, and tolerance. No one is so vain of his nation¬al culture as he who knows no other; conversely, it isdifficult not to respect a people whose masterpieces oneloves, whose joys and sorrows one senses.

To know the literature,, the arts, the thought of anation, to know its traditions, its teaching methods andits social problems, its costumes and its cooking none ofthis necessarily brings about any practical consequences.Ordinarily these studies have the effect of refining theintelligence and sensitivity. They teach that men mustnot remain strangers to men. They lead one to realizethat there is a human unity, rich in numerous formswhich struggle against monotony. They lead one to per¬ceive this unity in the highest works of peoples, and notonly in their elementary needs.

The people of a country, a city and even of a streetare extremely varied and unpredictable; we shall neverreally know them. Yet knowing what they admire, whatis recited, read or sung around them, we are not ignorantof them either. Furthermore, we will judge them theless summarily as we know these things a little better.To esteem is not always to judge. The cathedral ofChartres and the tragedies of Corneille, Hamlet and theNovum Organum, the Well-Tempered Clavichord and theCritique of Pure Reason do not permit us to judge theFrench, the English of the Germans of today; and onewould generally be Wrong to judge Westerners by theirpoems or their theologies.

Yet these works, these monuments, these revelationsare the patrimony of Westerners; if not examples andterms of reference for them, at least living and fruitfulimages. It is worth the trouble to familiarize ourselveswith the corresponding images which inspire the peoplesof the far-off East, in order to understand them andknow what aims these peoples set for themselves. Per¬haps We shall then understand that this patrimonybelongs to us too, and that these aims are in realityour own.

Condensed from "East-West Towards Mutual Understanding," anew booklet shortly to be published by Unesco and prepared by theDepartment of Mass Communication of Unesco as a contribution toEast-West mutual understanding.

17


srTT ^ >

V

1

Photos ® Oliver G. Wackernagel - Basel

19

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, New Delhi

FIRST HIGHWAYS for manthe riverswere the gifts of Nature, and they are still widely used as roads and dwelling placesby those peoples who continue to live in rhythm with Nature. Above, early morning on the Jhelum River, near Srinagar,Kashmir. Kashmir is celebrated for its houseboats (above) often used by visitors to travel through the grandiose scenery.

UNESCO'S EAST-WEST MAJOR PROJECTby Jacques Havet

The march of history has reduced physical distance,multiplied the exchanges between peoples and theopportunities for useful communication, but it has

also increased the risks of tragic misunderstanding.Oriental and Occidental people now belong to the sameworld, and this evolution must lead to solidarity.

But the West does not yet know the East. The studiesof Eastern civilizations made by scholars through cen¬turies have too often escaped the notice of the generalpublic. The basic culture of the man of the West

remains centered on a limited heritage. Prejudices anderroneous ideas continue to circulate.

The East, thrust daily into the presence of the West,too often sees only an incomplete and distorted image.The conventional picture that the cinema, press andradio offer is added to the image left from the times oftrading and colonialism. Unavoidably, the picture of theWest that predominates Is that of a technology, detachedfrom its intellectual and spiritual bases.

In November 1956, Unesco's General Conference meetingin New Delhi decided that the Organization should con¬centrate important resources during the next ten years

Jacques Havet, French philosopher and writer, is the co-ordinatorof Unesco's East-West Major Project.

20

on activities that would contribute to a closer relationshipbetween the East and the West. The entire Organization,including groups working with it in each country, wouldparticipate in this common enterprise. This appeal forconcentrated and continuous action is the meaning ofUnesco's "Major Project for Mutual Appreciation of Cul¬tural Values of East and West".

For Unesco, three important points emerge from theconclusions submitted by an international advisorycommittee Which was set up to give guidance in theimplementation of the major project. Firstly an effortmust be made to eliminate prejudices and replace themwith knowledge of established historical and sociologicalfacts. Secondly an understanding of the spirit of eachculture, the way of life and the manner of thought andfeeling of each people must be promoted by presentingfacts in the perspective of history, geography and socialand economic conditions. Finally, more ways must bedeveloped to inform the general public in each countryabout the most remote cultures.

In this ten-year programme, the spreading of factualknowledge of all the cultures plays an important role.But there can be no substitute for direct contacts betweenhuman beings, the actual experience of meeting andtalking together; only that can bring about, in the words


of the advisory committee, a "new spirit" in relationsbetween the peoples.

This programme involves, first of all, the basic studiesand research needed for a proper understanding of themeaning of East-West rapprochement; the investigationof certain obstacles impeding mutual understanding; andan elaboration of the cultural values of different peoplesso as best to interpret them to the general public in otherlands.

Plans already under way include international talks,social science studies related to the evolution of themodern East, fellowships for study and research onvarious civilizations, and listing of the principal referenceworks encyclopedias, histories, etc. of greatest useto the layman. Later, new activities will be added: asurvey of the teaching of Eastern and Western literatures,fellowships to train more translators capable of present¬ing to the Western public the great representative booksof the East, the development of university institutionsfor the study and presentation of cultural knowledge ofdifferent regions and the organization of exchangesbetween them.

The education of children, whose minds are still unpre¬judiced, is an important field for long-term action.Curricula, textbooks and other teaching materials, andteaching methods, must be revised and adapted to thatobjective. Unesco distributes materials, makes sugges¬tions and organizes teachers' conferences to this end.

In many countries "associated schools" serve as a test¬ing ground for the principles developed by Unesco. Thesewill continue, on an experimental basis, to help inimproving the teaching of cultural values. Member Sta¬tes will be asked to produce books about their cultures foruse in the schools of other countries. Unesco will publishbrochures for the use of teachers and pupils.

Groups concerned with adult education and youth activ

ities are receiving help and suggestions from Unesco formeetings and study courses among their leaders, for thepreparation of material on cultural values; for the devel¬opment of exchanges among their members, activitieswhich may help to introduce into the life of a givencommunity some of the cultural riches from other areas.

For the general public, a programme for translatingthe great works of modern and classical literatures ofEast and West is now being developed; albums are pub¬lished to spread knowledge of little-known masterpiecesof art, travelling exhibitions of art reproductions incolour, are circulating in Member States. The mostrecent one shows water colours of both East and West.Unesco is to publish materials for projection, and inex¬pensive volumes to give the public easy access to this sortof material. In 1959, two parallel series of popular workswill be undertaken, in which each book will present ahistorical panorama of the art or literature of onecountry of the Orient.

Articles and sample broadcasts are being provided forjournalists and radio producers of East and West. Unescopromotes co-operation and exchanges between them, pro¬duces programmes of comparative music and documentaryfilm. Unesco is compiling lists of films for public screen¬ing or TV, classified according to their cultural values.

These are the principal aspects of a co-ordinated effortwhich should provide a basis or an example for activitiesby Member States either in their own countries or on aninternational scale.

Unesco's project is a long-term enterprise, but there isalready progress which promises well for the futurethedevelopment of new habits, the broadening of publicawareness of the need for better understanding betweenEast and West, an increase in cultural materials that canlead to a genuine knowledge of the values of East andWest, and a weakening of the most dangerous prejudices.

NEW SKYWAYS are today opening up areas of Asia which only a few years ago were isolated or even inaccessible. Asiancountries are planning and building railways, roads, canals, harbours and airfields for exploitation of natural resources, thesetting up of factories and the development of home and overseas trade. Below, plantation in Indo-China with its own airstrip.

Werner Bischof© Magnum Photos

21

THE ORIENT

TODAY AND

YESTERDAY

Some plain speaking

by an Asian statesman

Right, Bagobo chieftain, from the Philippines;left, a man of Bihar in north-east India.

WHO Photos

by Charles AmmounMinister Plenipotentiary, Permanent Delegate of the Lebanon to Unesco

History is not simply the mirror of the past: it ofteninfluences our actions in the present and to a largeextent governs our behaviour in the future. The

world of yesterday is reflected in the virgin mind of theschoolchild or student by his textbooks, and what helearns from them will be projected by him onto the worldof tomorrow.

What the International Advisory Committee on theMajor Project is interested in is not pure historicalResearch, but the translation of history and historicalwriting into action, the extent to which acquired ideaswill be practically expressed by an increase or a lesseningof international understanding. What interests us, aboveall, is contemporary history, history in the making.

The teachings of ancient or modern history undoubtedlyhelp to mould men's minds and deeds, but their effect isusually confined to mental attitudes. They provide nospur to direct action but leave in the subconscious minda strange amalgam of sympathy or aversion. They arenot decisive in producing definite immediate action.

Our object is to calm men's minds and ensure peace inour time, which means that our activities should be essen¬tially focussed on contemporary history.

Not, of course, that we shall ignore ancient or modernhistory altogether especially We Orientals, for whom tospeak with brutal frankness the past was the time whenmost of us were strong and powerful, with the world atour feet. We, too, had our heyday, when our civilization,our culture and our arms were without peer.

From our history, We can take hope for the future. I,a Lebanese, an Asian by geographical definition, find twogrounds for pride in my country's history. Every manwho reads a book or sails the seas owes something tothe Phoenicians; arid we have our share in the fameand splendour of Arab culture and civilization whichspread from the desert to the Pyrenees in a glorious

Unesco has set up an international advisory committee of expertsfrom over 20 nations to assist it in carrying out its 10-year MajorProject to promote better mutual appreciation of the culturalvalues of ihe Orient arid the Occident. The article on this pageand that on page 26 are based on papers which were presented to arecent meeting of this advisory committee.

22

flowering of art and science. Forerunners of theRenaissance, ancestors in their way of Leonardo da Vinciand Christopher Colombus, custodians of the heritage ofGreece which they reverently transmitted to Europe and,indirectly, discoverers of the New World and fathers ofalgebra, chemistry and the pointed arch, the Arabscontributed as much as any other people to the World'sprogress.

The exploitation of coal marked the beginning of a de¬cline for them. There was none in their territory (or theywere unable to find any). In general, they lacked asource of energy, and when one was discovered deep be¬neath the desert they no longer had the means of exploit¬ing it.

There is a lesson to be learnt here. All this power andglory, culture and civilization, which once had the masteryand were the envy of the world, has shrunk in a bare twoor three centuries, to a few pages in the EncyclopaediaBritannica! Nor is there any civilization or country whichcan be sure of escaping such a twist of fate.

But we Orientals, reviewing this history, must set our¬selves firmly against basking in our past glory, using itas an excuse for living in a dream-world of yesterday,and justifying our inactivity, divisions and vanity, as wesquander the noble heritage of our ancestors, by flauntingthe golden pages written by them in the face of themarvelling West. What we need is just sufficient historyto avoid becoming exclusively concerned with the presentbut not too much to lull us to sleep in a Capuan paradiseof the past. '

Passions are still hot so far as contemporary historyis concerned and many of the actors are still living. Thewounds have not yet healed, and conflicts of interests arestill unresolved.

World developments since 1914 have moved apace. AllWe need do is to consider the facts, look at the map andstudy the statistics. There has been a tremendous uphea¬val, and this is especially true as regards the relationsbetween, the Orient and the Occident.

The post- 1914 period has been marked by the accessionof a whole host of States to independence. The influenceof the West or perhaps, to be more exact, one shouldsay. of Europe in particular (and, still more precisely, its


military and political presence or entrenchment) hasundergone an amazing decline. The contraction of thisBalzacian "'wild ass's skin" sums up the whole.drama ofmodern times.

In What way can the history of these developments pro¬mote better appreciation of mutual values? It is historyin the making, and, in some cases, still to make. To,complete it, two lines of action would today have to becontemplated, designed for different sets of school¬children or students and based on two equally vital prin¬ciples.

The first is oblivion. Our memories may be a millstoneround our necks. It is good now and then to depositthem in the cloakroom of modern times and let themstay there.

The new conception of history should be based on totaloblivion of one particular aspect of the past. Peoplemust forget that they once occupied a country and hadto govern it by main force, that they exploited it econo¬mically, humiliated it by all sorts of legal or deviousdiscriminatory practices, disparaged its culture and lan¬guage and cast scorn on its institutions and faith; andthat it emerges from these passages in its history stillbruised in body and still suffering from the indignities toits pride and self-respect. With all this over and donewith, there must be no hankering after the past: theonly possible reconquest is a cultural one.

What must be consigned to oblivion, above all, is theconcept of racial superiority, and those red, green andblue patches which pictorially symbolized servitude ordomination, the relationship of the lord to his serfs orslaves, on yesterday's atlases and Wall maps. I do notthink I am being over-paradoxical in stressing this seem

ingly trivial aspect; but who can say how much harmhas been done to the world by this insidious colour-mania

a symbol of possession for the one and a badge of shamefor the other? Our eyes must be trained to see With anew vision.

History textbooks more than any others, reflect thespirit behind them. We can count on the full supportand honest co-operation of all governments in the Orientor the Occident in inculcating this spirit in their schools,colleges and universities; and the rising generations,having unlearned hatred or contempt, will extend thehand of the friendship to each other across the seas. Weshall have restored the bridge of love and friendship.

I note with alarm, however, that so far I have mainlyexpressed the Oriental point of view, much as I wantedto slough off my old self: I Would be setting a badexample, if I did not manage to shed that skin.

We are asking the Occident to forget; but We shall askthe Orient to remember. That is the second principle.We shall ask it to remember all the benefits conferred byhygiene, science and education; the roads, ports andhospitals that have been built and the modern techniqueswhich have been thrown open to it and on which itssalvation' depends; and to cherish the memory of thedevoted service given by teachers, doctors and missiona¬ries, or even by soldiers Who Were all three in one. Norshould it forgethowever paradoxical this may seem thatfrom its struggles as well as from theexample set it has often acquired a senseof dignity and an understanding offreedom, and become conscious, through itstribulations of its historical, political ornational personality.

Cont'd

next page

GREAT BRONZE BUDDHA of Kamakura, near Yokohama, dwarfs class ofJapanese schoolchildren out for a day's sightseeing,as they pose for the photographer. This giant bronze Amitabha Buddha, now sitting under the open sky, was once enshrinedin a majestic structure which was repeatedly struck by natural disasters until it was finally carried away by a tidal wave in 1495.

Oliver G. Wackernagel, Basel

23

THE ORIENT TODAY

AND YESTERDAY

(Continued)

Let the

and the

The Occident never succeeded in hiding its true facebehind the mask it presented to us, and it reassumed itstrue character whenever it dropped that mask in momentsof relaxation. These brief moments of truth enabled us tomodel some of our oWn features on those of the Occident,or rather to rediscover them, buried as they were undercenturies of servitude and oppression.

Especially must We not forget the language which wasbrought to us, and through which we have made contactWith the new era; there is not one of us who does notowe something in his educational make-up to that contri¬bution. For myself, it is so much part and parcel of methat I cannot speak of an outside contribution to designatethat language which has put us into touch with all thetechnical and humanistic sciences and glorious new fieldsof intellectual activity and enabled us to profit by thefruits of world endeavour, to assimilate the achievementsof mankind as a whole and to merge them With our own.

Certain considerations should be singled out for specialstudy. In particular, action must be taken to combat dis¬crimination. This new word for a very old phenomenonstill awaits precise definition. In essence, it covers in¬equality of treatment based on prejudice, the prejudiceoften being nothing more than a philosophical cloakmasking concrete material interests. Anything done inthis field will have a very beneficial effect.

Injured pride is at the root of very many of the mis¬understandings existing between Orient and Occident.Until recently, the Westerner, and more particularly theEuropean, was the master of the World, and the fount ofall power. That situation lasted for two or three gene¬rations. How could it fail to produce a certain sense ofsuperiority, conscious or unconscious, which Was bound tobe reflected in action, Whether in a crude, concealed oreven in a courteous manner. It is this feeling which mustbe overcome on the part of the Occident, and the Wayto do it is by explaining the historical facts.

We Easterners, too, are very sensitive on this point. Weoften all too often give the impression of having beenflayed alive: the slightest remark upsets and irritates us.Years and sometimes centuries of contempt or insult haveleft us With hypersensitive skins. We are no longercontent with anything less than superlative praise. Ouraccession to independence has transformed us neitherinto States nor nations, nor into perfect beings.

It is understandable, after all, that in the first flushof our recovered freedom, we should have let ourselvesbecome intoxicated by the magic of the word and thereality of what it stood for. But today, one of the condi¬tions for our survival and salvation is that we should see

ourselves more clearly, and expose and fight against ourfailings, Weaknesses and indeed faults, accepting and in¬viting criticism, comment and even friendly raillery.

I have referred particularly to action among school¬children and students. This must be supplementedby another form of action relating to another gen¬

eration entirely. Here We come up against a new pro¬blem: that of the discontinuity of history.

The world does not stay still between the time We leavethe schoolroom or the university and the time when weplay an active part in life. The fact that the historicalprocess has quickened is now generally accepted. By asort of process of osmosis or contagion which can betraced back to modern techniques, history has been shar¬ing in the effects of the acceleration of means of commu¬nication and information media.

Modern man has little time for reflexion, and the states¬man is no exception to the rule. It needs a prodigiouseffort of energy and Will on his part to turn inwards andmake a calm, careful and objective study of the facts. Itis even more difficult to look beyond national boundariesand draw overall conclusions from unco-ordinated eventstaking place in the four corners of the earth.

There is a Wide gulf between what the student haslearnt and What the man of action has failed to learnand assimilate in a world which is in rapid and perpetual

24

Occident forgetOrient remember

motion. All this is even truer of the relations betweenthe Orient and the Occident.

We must think in terms of a revision of modern historyin respect of Orient-Occident relations, for the use ofadults. Let us be bold innovators in this respect.

What I have in mind would be the selection of a groupof Easterners, a body of travelling professors or lecturers,as it Were, Who |would give courses at universities butwhose main rôle Would be primarily that of missionaries.They Would act in a missionary spirit, and their coursesWould have to be -fairly Widely publicized. They wouldspend a year in each country giving their audiences anaccurate picture of developments in their native lands.

There remains one final aspect: future prospects. Whatwe have to do, I suggest, is to write the history of futurerelations between the Orient and the Occident and this

Without having recourse to fortune-tellers, seers or pro¬phets!

Not that We can work out this history of tomorrow indetail, but its main lines of development can be foreseen.Once We have forgotten or unlearnt hatred, we shall haveto build anew; and, in that connexion, We shall have todemonstrate, by suitable examples, the impossibility ofnationalistic isolation.

This brings us to a delicate point. There can be nodenying that there is a rising tide of nationalismover a large part of the globe. It cannot be turned

back, and it is useless to oppose it: it must be harnessed.Nationalism is out of date. It has come too làte in a

world Which is too old. It is, in any case, a necessarystage, and the wise course might be to shorten that tran¬sition from one state to another as far as possible. Butit Would be futile to ignore it, and even more so todiscount it.

Nationalism has not always been solely a reactionagainst the Occident. The Arab countries, for example,languished for centuries under Oriental oppression. Theirnationalism is a phenomenon which retains its purity justbecause it is not channelled in a single direction.

It has to be accepted, as a necessary good or evil. AndI really mean "necessary": even if it is an outmodedconcept made obsolete by the advance of modern thoughtand science, a dose or fit; of nationalism enables coun¬tries Which have just achieved independence to gain aclearer knowledge of themselves in all fields, and espe¬cially in the cultural field. They rediscover their lan¬guage, their literature, their poets, their historians and(more rarely) their scientists.

This reawakening sometimes has its childish aspects.Let us see to it that there is nothing repugnant aboutit and that it is free from the excesses which sometimesresult in condemning the use of Arabic figures in the nameof Arab nationalism, or others of the same kind whichincidentally, are now on the wane, even Where they havebeen found.

Once this outburst is over, another aspect of the prob¬lem arises: the need for close collaboration in all. fieldsand especially in that of culture, for exchanges in allforms, for interpretation and interdependence, for actiondirected along two distinct but not contradictory lines.

Such is the first task in Which a little nationalism does

not come amiss, to bring about the revival of a country'sculture and restore to it its former glory (for all culturesare glorious), to invigorate and foster it, making it dyn¬amic, modern and inspiring through contact with othercultures in our case, the Western cultures or culture. Andthis must be done straightforwardly and candidly with¬out ulterior motives, and with that feeling of respectWhich is essential in any task. True there must be noimitation, but neither must there be any hesitation inlearning.

What we have to do, above all, is to drive home the needfor human fellowship. That is yet another elementarytruth, but it seems essential today to repeat such truthscontinually. They are accepted in principle but ignoredin practice.

Werner Bischof© Magnum Photos

The world over, the family circle offers an image of warmth and security. Around cooking pots in Assam (below) or reunitedat the day's end, talking and sipping tea in Tokyo (above) the family symbolizes unmistakeably the essential oneness of mankind.© Suntl Janah, Calcutta

25

J Ph. Charbonnier © Realities

In the mountain-rimmed, open spaces of Mongolia, children learn to ride when they are four or five years old on ponies whichare famed for their speed and hardiness. Automobiles can be used, even without roads, over great stretches of the flat drycountry, but the people rely mostly on horses for transportation and the mail is usually carried by men on relays of horses.

by K. D. ErdmannProfessor of Modern History, University of Kiel, Federal Republic of Germany

Since the middle of the 18th century, Europeanshave become accustomed to arranging the historyof civilizations in a series which, while chrono¬

logical, also signifies a grading of values. Tbe 18thcentury French statesman and economist, Turgot,himself visualized the evolution of history in three stages,namely, the theological, metaphysical and empirical eras.As empirical knowledge developed in Europe, Europeansfelt justified in considering themselves in the forefrontof progress and looking down on other civilizations asbackward.

This outlook is aptly described in the following termsby Paul Hazard in his book on La pensée européenne auXVIII' siècle : "'The virtuous Chinese and the wise

Egyptians were for ever being praised; but it had to beadmitted that neither China nor Egypt had fulfilled thepromises of early days. They had remained sunk in iner¬tia, while the West had displayed tireless intellectual

curiosity. It had never ceased to do so, so that theGreeks and Romans themselves were surpassed by thepresent... and thus the new Europe was better than theold... Not that its sons were without faults. Restless

and excitable, their history was one of incessant revolu¬tions and their annals a tissue of misfortunes, follies andcrimes. Corrupted by luxury, they cruelly exploited theinhabitants of the colonies they had conquered. Yet theyretained the right to be proud of themselves. Why hadthe Asians and Africans not anchored in their harbours,conquered their territories and imposed their authorityon the local princes? Because the Europeans werestronger and they were stronger because they were wiser;being wiser, they represented a more advanced state ofcivilization."

This conviction of the superiority of the progressiveEuropean spirit over people of other civilizations has beenvery forcibly expressed in Hegel's Philosophy of History.

26


He took freedom as the central theme of history. Theessence of world history was, according to his famous defi¬nition, progress in consciousness' of freedom. He consi¬dered that history began in the Far East and then advan¬ced through the Near East, Greece and Rqme, to culminatein European civilization. He did not see cultures on thesame level as different possibilities inherent in Man's na¬ture of representing himself and interpreting his positionin the world; on the contrary, looking back from the cul¬tural heights of 19th century Europe, the old civilizationsof Asia and ancient European cultures appear as histori¬cal stages which have been left behind.

All of us have had numerous occasions to realize that

the end of European colonialism does not mean the endof the process of Europeanization which began to spreadthrough the World a century ago. On the contrary, thisprocess has been accelerated since the freed peoples ofAsia have themselves taken over, with all their energy,the rebuilding and modernization of their economies,States, and societies. No one can foretell the fateof these ' peoples' ancient philosophical, religious andartistic inheritance or foresee, whether a civilization,forming a new chapter in human history, willemerge from this confrontation.

In order to see the relationship between East and Westin proper historical perspective, however, it must be rea¬lized that the development of modern technology meansa profound incision, not to say a break, even in Europeitself. The life of a modern European is further removedfrom the life of a townsman or countryman of Goethe'sday, some 150 years' ago, than the life of the latter was

'from that of a European in the early Middle Ages, athousand years ago. It is becoming increasingly clearfrom historical research that the real turning point inEuropean' 'history was not in 1500, between the MiddleAges and modern times, but at the time of the greatindustrial, political and social revolution of the 18th and19th centuries.

Man has taken it upon himself to burst his naturalbonds and to conquer time and space. Like technology,economics and society have been drawn into the sphereof planning and calculation. Our age is dominated bytechnical considerations of a utilitarian nature and not

by respect for inherited values and traditions. For athousand years; the basic element of the European socialsystem was seignorial right and the privileged urbancommunity. This system, on which the old Europeanculture was based, has vanished. A propertied and edu¬cated middle class and after that the working class, have

come to the fore as the determining factors in history,and the process of social revolution, which began150 years ago, has not yet come to an end. Educatorsthroughout the Western world are wondering what willbecome of Europe's cultural and educational inheritance

and whether, for example, a classical education has anyreal chance of survival in the present-day World.

In this uncertainty about its present-day civilization,Europe is in a position which, despite all differences, is ina sense comparable with that of the peoples of Asia, withtheir ancient civilizations, who are in process of becomingEuropeanized. All civilizations are today facing the sameproblem, namely, how to preserve an old and hallowedcultural heritage, handed down through the ages, in ourmodern world of technology and bureaucracy, and whe¬ther it is even possible or desirable to preserve it. Do thepeoples of East and West realize that they are in thethroes of the same cultural crisis?

For the Westerner, it may be said that the fascinationof Asia lies in its traditional culture its old religions, phi¬losophy, wisdom and art in comparison with whichmodern Asian culture and Asian present-day problemsare unfortunately given less weight. Conversely, is it nottrue that the attraction of Western civilization for the

A^ian peoples is to be attributed almost entirely to modernscientific and technological progress, which has madethem forget the old European values?

Here, it appears necessary to establish a balance andthis might be a special task for Unesco under its East-West Project. The Westerner, who looks upon free Asiaas an area where a great and immensely important move¬ment is going on, must recognize that the attempt of theAsian peoples to reconcile their venerable cultural tradi¬tion with present-day industrial and technological needsis a matter which concerns him also. Whether this

reconciliation is everywhere desired and whether, whereit is desired, it will succeed, is another question.

This aspect of the Asian situation is important to themodern Westerner, concious of his Own cultural problems.On the other hand, I wonder how far the Asian peoplesin process of adopting Western industrial practices andtechnology are aware that this is only one aspect ofWestern civilization. Industry and technology are theoffshoots of science and the latter is deeply rooted in theintellectual, and I might even say spiritual, heritage ofEurope. A gulf divides the new Europe from the old andyet modern Europe draws its life-blood from its intellec¬

tual past and its historical legacy.

J. Ph. Chardonmer © Realities

Chemistry class in a laboratory at the Uni¬versity of Ulan Bator, formerly Urga, thecapital of the Mongolian People's Republic.

Werner Bischof© Magnum photos

Rubber latex being graded after cleaning ¡nCambodia. In north-west Cambodia is AngkorWat, capital of the once mighty Khmer Empire.

High Commissioner for Ceylon, London

Papaw growing in Ceylon Is tapped for thelatex that is used ¡n the manufacture of

papain, a ferment which decomposes proteins.27

ALL MEN ARE

BROTHERS

UNESCO'S

TRIBUTE TO

MAHATMA GANDHI

Unesco is paying a special tributeto Mahatma Gandhi. It renders

homage to both the person and thewritings of a man whose spiritualinfluence has extended throughoutthe world in a new book entitled

All Men Are Brothers, which pre¬sents the life and thoughts of thegreat teacher as set down in Gandhi'sown words. The aim of the texts

is to illustrate and make better

known the different aspects ofGandhi's personality and writings.The English edition will be followed

by French and Spanish versions(See page 35). On pages 30 and 3 Iwe publish a selection of Gandhi'sthoughts taken from All Men Are

Brothers. The complete introduc¬tion to the Unesco volume speciallywritten by Sir Sarvepalli Radhak¬rishnan, Vice-President of India, is

presented on the opposite page.Henri Cartier-Bresson © Magnum Photos

28

great teacher appears

AI once in* a while. SeveralI centuries may pass byI without the advent of1 such a one. That by

which he is known is his

life. He first lives and then tells

others how they may live likewise.Such a teacher was Gandhi. These

Selections from his speeches andwritings compiled, with great careand discrimination by Sri KrishnaKripalani will give the reader someideas of the workings of Gandhi'smind, the growth and the practicaltechniques which he adopted.

Gandhi's life was rooted in India's

religious tradition with its emphasison a passionate search for truth, aprofound reverence for life-, the idealof non-attachment and the readiness

to sacrifice all for the knowledge ofGod. He lived his whole life in the

perpetual quest of truth: "I live .andmove and have my being in thepursuit of this goal."

A life which has no roots, which is

lacking in depth of background is asuperficial one. There are some whoassume that when we see what is

right we will do it. Even when we

know what is right it does not followthat we will choose and do right.

We are overborne by powerful im¬pulses and do wrong and betray thelight in us. "In our present statewe are, according to the Hindu doc¬trine, only partly human; the lowerpart of us is still animal; only theconquest of our lower instincts bylove can slay the animal in us." Itis by a process of trial and error,self-research and austere disciplinethat the human being moves step bypainful step along the road tofulfilment.

Gandhi's religion was a rationaland ethical one. He would not

accept any belief which did notappeal to his reason or any injunc¬tion which did not commend to his

conscience.

f we believe in God, notI merely with our intellectI but with our whole being,I we will love all mankindI without any distinction ofI race or class, nation or

religion. We will work for the unityof mankind. "All my actions havetheir rise in my inalienable love ofmankind." "I have known no dis¬

tinction between relatives and stran¬

gers, countrymen and foreigners,white and coloured, Hindus andIndians of other faiths whether^Musulmans, Parsees, Christians or"Jews. I may say that my heart hasbeen incapable of making any suchdistinctions." "By a long process ofprayerful discipline I have ceasedfor over forty years to hate anybody."All men are brothers and no human

being should be a stranger to another.The welfare of all, sarvodaya, shouldbe our aim. God is the common

bond that unites all human beings.To break this bond even with our

greatest enemy is to tear God him¬self to pieces. There is humanityeven in the most Wicked.

This view leads naturally to theadoption of non-violence as the bestmeans for solving all problems, na¬tional and international. Gandhi

affirmed that he was not a visionarybut a practical idealist. Non-violenceis meant not merely for saints andsages but for the common peoplealso. "Non-violence is the law of

our species, as violence is the law ofthe brute. The spirit lies dormantin the brute and he knows no law

but that of physical might. Thedignity of man requires obedience toa higher law to the strength of

the spirit."

ANDHi was the first in

Gm human history to extendI the principle of non-vio-I lence from the individual' to the social and political

plane. He entered poll-tics for the purpose of experimentingwith non-violence and establishingits validity.

"Some friends have told me that

truth and non-violence have no placein politics and worldly affairs. I donot agree. I have no use for themas a means of individual salvation.

Their introduction and application

in everyday life has been my experi¬ment all along." "For me, politicsbereft of religion are absolute dirt,ever to be shunned. Politics con¬

cerns nations and that which con¬

cerns the welfare of nations must be

one of the concerns of a man who is

religiously inclined, in other words, aseeker after God and Truth. For

me God and Truth are convertible

terms, and if any one told me thatGod was a God of untruth or a God

of torture I would decline to worship

Him. Therefore, in politics also wehave to establish the Kingdom ofHeaven."

In the struggle of India's indepen¬dence, he insisted that we shouldadopt civilized methods of non¬violence and suffering. His standfor the freedom of India was not

based on any hatred for Britain. Wemust hate the sin not the sinner.

"For me patriotism is the same ashumanity. I am patriotic because Ian human and humane. I will not

hurt England or Germany to serveIndia." He believed that he rendered

a service to the British in helpingthem to do the right thing by India.The result was not only the liberationof the Indian people but an increasein the moral resources of mankind.

In the present nuclear context, Ifwe wish to save the world, we should


adopt the principles of non-violence.Gandhi said: "I did not move a

muscle, when I first heard that anatom bomb had wiped out Hiroshima.On the contrary I said to myself:"unless now the World adopts non¬violence, it will spell certain suicidefor mankind." "In any future con¬flict We cannot be certain that

neither side will deliberately usenuclear weapons. We have the powerto destroy in one blinding flash allthat we have carefully built up acrossthe centuries by our endeavour andsacrifice. By a campaign of propa¬ganda we condition men's minds fornuclear warfare. Provocative re¬

marks fly about freely. We useaggression even in words; harshjudgements, ill-will, anger, are allinsidious forms of violence.

In the present predicament whenwe are not able to adjust ourselvesto the new conditions which science

has brought about, it is not easy toadopt the principles of non-violence,truth and understanding. But onthat ground we should not give up

the effort. While the obstinacy ofthe political leaders puts fear intoour hearts, the common sense andconscience of the peoples of theworld give us hope.

With the increased velocity ofmodern changes we do not knowwhat the world will be a hundred

years hence. We cannot anticipatethe future currents of thought andfeeling. But years may go theirway, yet the great principles of satyaand ahimsa, truth and non-violence,

are there to guide us. They are thesilent stars keeping holy vigil abovea tired and turbulent world. Like

Gandhi we may be firm in ourconviction that the sun shines above

the drifting clöUds.

e live in an age which isWl aware of its own defeat

I and moral coarsening, anI age in which old certain-I ties are breaking down,I the familiar patterns are

tilting and cracking. There is in¬creasing intolerance and embitter-ment. The creative flame that kind¬

led the great human society is lan¬guishing. The human mind in all itsbaffling strangeness and varietyproduces contrary types, a Buddhaor a Gandhi, a Nero or a Hitler. Itis our pride that one of the greatestfigures of history lived in our gener¬ation, walked With us, spoke to us,taught us the Way of civilized living.He who Wrongs no one fears no one.He has nothing to hide and so isfearless. He looks everyone in theface. His step Is firm, his body

upright, and his words are direct andstraight. Plato said long ago:"There always are in the world a fewinspired men whose acquaintance isbeyond price."

29

The world is siek

of hatredMahatma Gandhi

-* I have nothing new to teach the world.Truth and non-violence are as old as the

hills.

* It has always been a mystery to me howmen can feel themselves honoured by thehumiliation of their fellow-beings.

k "Hate the sin and not the sinner" is a

precept which, though easy enough tounderstand, is rarely practised, and that iswhy the poison of hatred spreads in theworld.

k You have to stand against the wholeworld although you may have to standalone. You have to stare the world in

the face although the world may look atyou with bloodshot eyes. Do not fear.Trust that little thing in you which residesin the heart and says: "Forsake friends,wife, all; but testify to that for which youhave lived and for which you have to die."

k God has created different faiths just asHe has the votaries thereof. How can I

even secretly harbour the thought that myneighbour's faith is inferior to mine andwish that he should give up his faith andembrace mine? As a true and loyalfriend, I can only wish and pray that hemay live and grow perfect in his own faith.In God's house there are many mansionsand they are equally holy.

* Let no one even for a moment entertain

the fear that a reverent study of other reli¬gions is likely to weaken or shake one'sfaith in one's own. The Hindu system ofphilosophy regards all religions as contain¬ing the elements of truth in them andenjoins an attitude of respect and reverencetowards them all. This of course pre¬supposes regard for one's own religion.Study and appreciation of other religionsneed not cause a weakening of that regard;it should mean extension of that regard toother religions.

k Non-violence is the greatest force at thedisposal of mankind. It is mightier thanthe mightiest weapon of destruction devisedby the ingenuity of man. Destruction isnot the law of the humans. Man lives freelyby his readiness to die, if need be, at thehands of his brother, never by killing him.Every murder or other injury, no matterfor what cause, committed or inflicted onanother is a crime against humanity.

k My experience, daily growing strongerand richer, tells me that there is no peacefor individuals or for nations without

practising Truth and Non-violence to theuttermost extent possible for man. Thepolicy of retaliation has never succeeded.

30

k My love for non-violence is superior toevery other thing mundane or supramun-dane. It is equalled only by my love fortruth which is to me synonymous with non¬violence through which and which alone Ican see and reach Truth. My scheme oflife, if it draws no distinction betweendifferent religionists in India, also drawsnone between different races. For me "A

man's a man for a' that."

* My non-violence does not admit ofrunning away from danger and leavingdear ones unprotected. Between violenceand cowardly flight, I can only prefer vio¬lence to cowardice. I can no more preachnon-violence to a coward than I can tempta blind man to enjoy healthy scenes. Non¬violence is the summit of bravery. And inmy own experience, I have had no diffi¬culty in demonstrating to men trained inthe school of violence the superiority ofnon-violence. As a coward, which I wasfor years, I harboured violence. I beganto prize non-violence only when I beganto shed cowardice.

Not knowing the stuff of which non¬violence is made, many have honestly be¬lieved that running away from danger everytime was a virtue compared to offeringresistance, especially when it was fraughtwith danger to one's life. As a teacherof non-violence, I must, so far as it ispossible for me, guard against such an un¬manly belief.

I am not a visionary. I claim to be apractical idealist. Religion of non-violenceis not meant merely for the rishis and saints.It is meant for the common people as well.Non-violence is the law of our species asviolence is the law of the brute. The spiritlies dormant in the brute, and he knowsno law but that of physical might. Thedignity of man requires obedience to ahigher law, to the strength of the spirit.

Often does good come out of evil. Butthat is God's, not man's plan. Man knowsthat only evil can come out of evil, as goodout of good... The moral to be legitimatelydrawn from the supreme tragedy of theatom bomb is that it will not be destroyedby counter bombs, even as violence cannotbe by counter violence. Mankind has togo out of violence only through non-vio¬lence. Hatred can be overcome only bylove. Counter hatred only increases thesurface, as well as the depth of hatred.

* It is impossible for one to be an interna¬tionalist without being a nationalist. Inter¬nationalism is possible only when national¬ism becomes a fact, i.e., when peoplesbelonging to different countries have orga

nized themselves and are able to act as one

man. It is not nationalism that is evil, itis the narrowness, selfishness, exclusivenesswhich is the bane of modern nations which

is evil. Each wants to profit at the expenseof, and rise on the ruin of, the other.

-* Interdependence is and ought to be as.much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency.Man is a social being. Without inter-relationwith society he cannot realize his onenesswith the universe or suppress his egoism.His social interdependence enables him totest his faith and to prove himself on thetouchstone of reality. If man were soplaced or could so place himself as to beabsolutely above all dependence on hisfellow-beings he would become so proudand arrogant as to be a veritable burdenand nuisance to the world. Dependence onsociety teaches him the lesson of huma¬nity.

* What is the cause of the present chaos ?It is exploitation, I will not say of weakernations by the stronger, but of sisternations by sister nations. And my funda¬mental objection to machinery rests on thefact that it is machinery that has enabledthese nations to exploit others.

Keystone

My notion of democracy is that underit the weakest should have the same

opportunity as the strongest. That cannever happen except through non-violence.

k The true source of rights is duty. Ifwe all discharge our duties, rights will notbe far to seek. If leaving duties unper¬formed we run after rights, they will escapeus like a will-o'-the-wisp. The more wepursue them, the farther will they fly.

To me political power is not an end butone of the means of enabling people tobetter their condition in every departmentof life. Political power means capacity toregulate national life through nationalrepresentatives. If national life becomesso perfect as to become self-regulated, norepresentation becomes necessary. Thereis then a state of enlightened anarchy. Insuch a state every one is his own ruler. Herules himself in such a manner that he is

never a hindrance to his neighbour. In theideal State, therefore, there is no politicalpower because there is no State. But theideal is never fully realized in life. Hencethe classical statement of Thoreau that that

government is best which governs the least.

I value individual freedom but you mustnot forget that man is essentially a socialbeing. He has risen to his present statusby learning to adjust his individualism tothe requirements of social progress. Un¬restricted individualism is the law of the

beast of the jungle. We have learnt tostrike the mean between individual freedom

and v i-b! restraint. Willing submission tosocial íestraint for the sake of the well-

being of the whole society enriches boththe individual and the society of which oneis a member.

The golden rule of conduct is mutualtoleration, seeing that we will never allthink alike and we shall see Truth in frag¬ment and from different angles of vision.

D,RD. Wadia, Panorama, Bombay

Conscience is not the same thing for all.Whilst, therefore, it is a good guide forindividual conduct, imposition of thatconduct upon all will be an insufferableinterference with everybody's freedom ofconscience.

Differences of opinion should nevermean hostility. If they did, my wife andI should be sworn enemies of one another.

I do not know two persons in the worldwho had no difference of opinion, and asI am follower of the Gita, I have alwaysattempted to regard those who differ fromme with the same affection as I have for

my nearest and dearest.

k We must be content to die, if we cannotlive as free men and women.

k Even the most despotic governmentcannot stand except for the consent of thegoverned which consent is often forciblyprocured by the despot. Immediately thesubject ceases to fear the despotic force, hispower is gone.

The true democrat is he who with purelynon-violent means defends his liberty and,therefore, his country's and ultimately thatof the whole of mankind.

I do not want my house to be walled inon all sides and my windows to be stuffed.I want the cultures of all lands to be blown

about my house as freely as possible. ButI refuse to be blown off my feet by any.I would have our young men and womenwith literary tastes to learn as much ofEnglish and other world-languages as theylike, and then expect them to give thebenefits of their learning to India and tothe world.

I am not sure that it is not better for

the children to have much of the prelimi-


nary instruction imparted to them vocally.To impose on children of tender age aknowledge of the alphabet and the abilityto read before they can gain general know¬ledge is to deprive them, whilst they arefresh, of the power of assimilating instruc¬tion by word of mouth.

k I would develop in the child his hands,his brain and his soul. The hands havealmost atrophied. The soul has been alto¬gether ignored.

* A wise parent allows the children tomake mistakes. It is good for them oncein a while to burn their fingers.

* To call woman the weaker sex is a libel;it is man's injustice to woman. If bystrength is meant brute strength then indeed,is woman less brute than man. If bystrength is meant moral power, then womanis immeasurably man's superior. Has shenot greater intuition, is she not more self-sacrificing, has she not greater powers ofendurance, has she not greater courage?Without her man could not be. If non¬

violence is the law of our being, the futureis with woman... Who can make a moreeffective appeal to the heart than woman?

* I believe in the proper education ofwomen. But I do believe that woman will

not make her contribution to the world bymimicking or running a race with men.She can run the race, but she will not riseto the great heights she is capable of bymimicking man. She has to be the comple¬ment of man.

I am not at all concerned with appearingto be consistent. In my pursuit after TruthI have discarded many ideas and learntmany new things. Old as I am in age, Ihave no feeling that I have ceased to growinwardly or that my growth will stop withthe dissolution of the flesh. What I am

concerned with is my readiness to obey thecall of Truth, my God, from moment tomoment.

Music means rhythm, order. Its effectis electrical. It immediately soothes. Un¬fortunately like our shastras, music hasbeen the prerogative of the few. It hasnever become nationalized in the modern

sense. If I had any influence with volun¬teer boy scouts and Seva Samiti organiza¬tions, I would make compulsory a propersinging in company of national songs.And to that end I should have great musi¬cians attending every congress or confe¬rence and teaching mass music.

I love music and all the other arts, butI do not attach such value to them as is

generally done. I cannot, for example,recognize the value of those activities whichrequire technical knowledge for theirunderstanding... When I gaze at the star-sown heaven, and the infinite beauty itaffords my eyes, that means to me morethan all human art can give me. Thatdoes not mean that I ignore the value ofthose works generally called artistic; butpersonally, in comparison with the infinitebeauty of Nature, I feel their unreality toointensely... Life is greater than all art. Iwould even go further and declare that theman whose life comes nearest to perfectionis the greatest artist; for what is art withoutthe sure foundation and framework of anoble life?

31

Letters to the Editor

TRUE WORTH OF A CROWN

Sir,

In your issue "Science Versus OldAge" (October 1958) we are told thatthe old people of "De Garnies By" (TheOld Peoples' Town) in Copenhagenreceive 30 crowns a month as pocketmoney. And further we are told that acrown is about 1/- or 15 cents. It istrue that when you change one Danishcrown into American money it will beworth about 15 cents, but it is justbecause of the American dollar's

superiority to European money whenbeing spent in Europe. What you wantto know is how much the Danes can

buy for one crown in Denmark, andhow much the Americans can buy for15 cents in U.S.A. When you havemade that out and compared the twoamounts of goods, you will see that acrown is equal to about 40 cents, andnow you have a more true picture ofthe old peoples' pocket money con¬ditions.

Finally, my compliments to theeditors for one of the most valuable

periodicals which has ever existed.

E. Skovbo Jensen

Fakse Ladeplads, Denmark

U.N. COUNCIL OF YOUTH

Sir,

Why not have a Youth Council as apermanent part of The United Nations?With more young people taking anactive interest in world affairs, studyinglonger, taking extra night courses,helping to fight each nation's militarybattles and generally being more activein a nation's growth, why not give thema say in their own affairs?

Mature youngsters could be chosento act as delegates on a U.N. YouthCouncil. This council could discuss

all affairs that go before the adultcouncils and the delegates could also beambassadors between the larger nations.Youngsters are asked to die for theirnations but are not given any direct sayin world affairs. A U.N. Youth Council

would represent all nations in theUnited Nations, even those still outside.Delegates would be chosen fromuniversities, organizations and youngpeoples groups in each country. Perhapsthe training they would receive wouldeven help them later as leaders in theirown lands, or as representatives in theU.N. Assembly.

The Youth Council would be station¬

ed at U.N. Headquarters in New York.Decisions would be by a majority.There could be a permanent secretaryand assistant secretary and presidentand vice-president, the latter two beingchanged every two years. PerhapsYouth Councils could be formed in each

area as a link with the larger Council.Regional Councils could act as informa¬tion centres and work in with schoolsand educational bodies.

Perhaps scholarships could be givenby local councils for a young man or

woman to study at the United Nations.He or she could spend a year at U.N.observing, learning all about inter¬national affairs and perhaps preparingfor a diplomatic or political career. . . Ifeel a Youth Council could do a greatdeal for world peace especially amongthe people who will be tomorrow'sleaders.

Stan Marks

, Melbourne, Australia

TIRESOME READING

Sir,

I must say quite frankly that yourmagazine makes boring reading. Thearticles are too long and too crammedwith facts. Only with difficulty doesone find a general idea and food forthought. The typography suffers froman excess of uniformity. As a doctorI have very little leisure time and thearticles you publish offer me neitherthe relaxation nor the intellectual sti¬mulus which I need.

Dr. Paul Noel

Chaville, France

DOUBLE DUTCH ?

Sir,

Because we appreciate and heartilyapplaud the excellent work done byUnesco, I was sorry to see a minorinexactitude in one of the articles in the

July issue of The Unesco Courierwhich I would like to point out. Inthe article on Bilingualism, Sir BenBowen Thomas names the Netherlands

as a bilingual country. This is verydefinitely not so. We have manydialects, of course, but only Dutch isspoken. Or was he thinking of "DoubleDutch?"

Marian Gobius

Voorburg, Netherlands

A WEAK PUBLICATION

Sir,

I follow certain of Unesco's activities

very closely and I have bought and willcontinue to buy some of its publications,in particular those in its collection ofrepresentative works. When one consi¬ders the usefulness and the quality ofthese publications and the very real needwhich they fill, one is justified in usinga certain severity of judgement withregard to your magazine. More oftenthan not The Unesco Courier is rather

weak, is influenced by a puerile need topopularize, and seems, in part, to be thework of bad journalists. As it is yourmost widely distributed publication andis offered at a "publicity" rate, it islikely to prove harmful to your activities.

Dr. J.-L. Doreau

Paris, France

SAVING INDIGENOUS ART

Sir,

I read with great interest the articleby Lilo Linke, '"Art Revival forEcuador's Indians," in the N" 6, 1955issue of The Unesco Courier (U.S. -

Sept. 1955). Did you know in Morocco,a similar and, as far as I can judge, evenmore ambitious effort to save indigenousart has been made by M. Marcel Vi¬caire, director of handicraft industries?M. Vicaire, who has lived in Moroccofor 35 years, has undertaken therestoration of several mosques and im¬portant monuments and has set up pilotworkshops. These are in operation allover Morocco, not only to develophandicrafts, but to enable them tofollow traditional lines. As director ofMorocco's eight museums, M. Vicaireperiodically organizes exhibitions ofcostumes, musical instruments, carpets,textiles, decorated arms, ceramics,leather work, jewellery, etc., of Berberand Arabic origin. Much more couldbe said of the admirable work carried

out under his direction.

A. M. HenryParis, France

SCENE FROM PARSIFAL

Sir,

Congratulations on your Octoberissue (Science vs. Old Age). . . I wasstruck by the magnificent photo whichappeared with the article by AldousHuxley ("The Greatest Enemies to Li¬berty"). I notice that the photo refersto the Beyreuth Festival. Can you tellme from which of Wagner's music-dramas this is a scene ?

R. Stanford

London

Ed. not. : The picture in question isa scene from Wagner's "Parsifal" aspresented in its modern staging at Bey¬reuth. "Parsifal" was Wagner's lastwork and is sometimes called his "Fare¬

well to the World". It occupies aspecial place within Wagner's opus. Init Wagner shows how he who finds theway to renunciation rises above his ownsufferings, experiencing that of others,and in compassionate understandingdelivers the world of sin and creates anew life.

IN GERMAN

Sir,

I have come across your publicationthrough a friend. It interests me verymuch and I should like to know if

there is any possibility of a Germanversion being printed. The numbers inmy possession are mainly in English,but I notice that they also exist inFrench, Spanish and recently Russian.In my opinion there must be conside¬rable interest in your publication inGerman-speaking 'areas, but a sufficientknowledge of one of the Unesco lan¬guages which would enable the readerto understand the highly qualified arti¬cles is rare. I feel therefore that aGerman edition would be well worth¬

while.

Hans Friedemann

Berlin-Lichterfelde, Germany

Editor's note : Publication of a Ger¬man edition is now being studied.

32


Dr. VITTORINO VERONESE (LEFT), CONFERING WITH Dr. L. EVANS DURING UNESCO'S RECENT GENERAL CONFERENCE.

Dr. VITTORINO VERONESE

NEW DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF UNESCO

The General Conference of Unesco at its 10th sessionheld in Paris in November has elected Dr. Vittorino

Veronese, of Italy, Director-General of the Organi¬zation in succession to Dr. Luther H. Evans. He isappointed for six years and. assumed office at the close ofthe General Conference on December 5.

Dr. Veronese was elected by 55 votes for, 20 against,with four abstentions. His election marks the first time

that the post of Director-General of one of the agenciesof the United Nations has been entrusted to a citizen of

Italy.

Born in Vicenza in 1910, Dr. Veronese brings to Unescoa distinguished career as a leader in cultural affairs andas an administrator and promoter of international co-op¬eration, particularly in social and economic matters. Doctorof Law, barrister and then professor at the Institute ofSocial Sciences at the Athenaeum Angelicum in Rome,Dr. Veronese became Secretary-General of the CatholicInstitute of Social Work in 1944 and later its president.

Before this period he was associated with a group ofdemocratically-minded university men and intellectualswho had come together in a review entitled "Studium" ofwhich Dr. Veronese later became editor. It was this group

(which included men like De Gasperi, Gonella and Vanoni)which in 1943 elaborated a manifesto of social action

(Codice di Camaldoli) inspired by the principles of demo¬cracy. At this time he became the Central Secretary ofthe "Catholic Movement of University Graduates" whichrallied university circles to the cause of freedom and humandignity.

Since 1944 he has held a number of high posts in hiscountry, including those of President of the Italian "Catho¬lic Action", member of the Governing Board of theFoundation "Premi Roma" for youth, President of theAssociation of Refugee Intellectuals in Italy, President ofthe Italian Central Institute of Credit, President of the"Consorzio di Crédito per le Opere Pubbliche" and memberof the Executive Committee of the Italian African Institute.

His association with Unesco dates from 1948, when Italybecame a member of the Organization. Since that time hehas attended all Unesco General Conferences as a member

of the Italian delegation. As a member of the SocialSciences Committee of the Italian National Commission

for Unesco he has promoted many Unesco activities inItaly. In 1952 he became a member of the Unesco Execu¬tive Board of which he was elected Chairman in 1957.

As a member of the Executive Board he initiated a series

of discussions and meetings which led to profound changesin Unesco's programme, including the introduction of the"Major Projects" to which Unesco is now devoting a largepart of its resources.

33

From the Unesco Newsroom...

^LUBS FOR HOMEWORK:"Lernclubs", or clubs for the prepa¬ration of lessons, are now operatingfor the benefit of schoolchildren inVienna and other Austrian cities.

The clubs are open during the after¬noons to children whose parentsare employed away from home, andthey enable these children to do theirhomework under the supervision of ateacher. The teacher does not helpthe children directly, but shows themhow to find for themselves the solu¬

tion of their problems and teachesthem to work independently.

FLIGHTS OF MERCY: Aircraftof Australia's Royal Flying DoctorService flew nearly half a millionmiles last year and its doctorstreated some 13,000 patients.Another 11,000 sick people hadtheir complaints diagnosed byflying doctors over the service'stwo-way radio network. TheFlying Doctor Service has becomean essential part of Australia'snational life, and has given peopleliving in remote regions a muchgreater sense of security.

ILAZARDS OF CHILDHOOD:

Accidents Mil more European chil¬dren over one year of age than doestuberculosis, poliomyelitis, cancer orany other disease reports the WorldHealth Organization. Statisticsshow that in the Netherlands, Swe¬den and Switzerland, for example,one death in three among childrenaged one to four is caused by anaccident. Different risks apply todifferent countries. While drowningis particularly frequent in Scandina

via, the Netherlands and France,Injury or death from burns caused bybraziers or open fires is a greaterdanger in Britain and Spain. Expertsstress that children must not be

overprotected, but should be taughtto cope with dangerous situations.

ESPERANTO IN THE U.N.: Acourse of Esperanto was startedrecently at the U.N. Headquartersin New York. Some 40 personsare attending the two parallelclasses, thus showing a new inte¬rest for the international languageamong staff members. The U.N.Library has acquired the "lingua-phone" course in Esperanto tomeet any requests from the staffregarding the language and at theend of the course it is the inten¬tion to create a U.N. EsperantoClub.

.INTERNATIONAL FILM & TVCOUNCIL: Delegates from 24 inter¬national fllm and television organi¬zations meeting recently in UnescoHouse decided to create an Inter¬

national Film and Television Council.

While preserving the autonomy ofthese international associations, theCouncil will ensure full co-operationbetween them and the close co-ordi¬nation of their activities.

CUTTING AERIAL RED TAPE:Proposals for simplifying interna¬tional air travel for passengers,aircrews, baggage, cargo and mailhave been announced by theInternational Civil Aviation Orga¬nization (ICAO). They include

SCIENTIST WA RNS OF

X-RAY DANGERS

A WARNING of the atomic radiation danger in the over-use of X-rayexamination was given by Professor Zenon M. Bacq, of Liège University,at the 4th General Assembly of the Council for International Organizations

of Medical Sciences, meeting at Unesco House in Paris.

Prof. Bacq pointed out the need to draw the attention of physicians to thenecessity of diminishing the quantities of radiation administered during X-raydiagnosis. He declared that specialists believed it would be possible to lower thedose distributed to the population by at least a quarter of its present level if allthose who conduct X-ray examinations were well-trained and equipped withappropriate apparatus, and if physicians did not ask X-ray specialists to conduct

useless or relatively useless examinations. This could be obtained without doingthe slightest harm to the precious contribution of X-ray examinations to thediagnosis of illness.

Prof. Bacq, who was speaking as an observer from the International Council

of Scientific Unions!, suggested that the Council for International Organizationsof Medical Sciences should call a symposium which would bring together radio¬logists, surgeons, physicians, gynecologists, dentists and other specialists.

Delegates to the congress pointed out the need to protect doctors, as well aspatients, from radiation. While X-ray specialists are familiar with their apparatusand take proper precautions, they stated, many surgeons run unnecessary risks.

introduction of uniform proce¬dures, amendment of regulationswhich may delay or restrict inter^national air traffic, and thereduction of ground delays to theminimum. During its 13 yearsexistence, ICAO has done muchtowards cutting down the red tapeinvolved in border crossings by air.The problem has become evenmore vital as aircraft speeds haveincreased, making it necessary tocut down the time spent incustoms, immigration and otherformalities.

AitFRICA'S GROWING OUTPUT:Agricultural production in Africasouth of the Sahara showed anaverage annual increase of- about3 per cent since 1948-52, a rate whichexceeded all other major regions ofthe world except the Near East. Thiswas reported in "The State of Foodand Agriculture 1958" published bythe Food and Agriculture Organiza¬tion. Fishery production in Africaincreased nearly four times in 20years, but the increase in forest pro¬ducts Was less, since two-thirds of theforests Were still inaccessible. Popu¬lation figures rose by one-third in thesame period, yet this representedonly five per cent of world populationon a total land surface of 15 percentof the earth. Agricultural produc¬tion here is capable of great expan¬sion since the area contains about

15 percent of the world's total agri¬cultural land. Today the productionis only four percent of the world'stotal.

TIME OUT FROM SCHOOL:The length of school holidaysvaries according to the differentcountries and often within thesame country. In the GermanFederal Republic, holidays average75 days a year; in Austria 85 days;in England and Wales 94 days; inCanada 102 days; in France 110days; in the United States 116days; in Ireland 130 days and inItaly 150 days per year.

UrUNESCO'S LATEST MEMBER:Albania recently became the 81stMember State of Unesco when theAlbanian representative in Londonsigned the Organization's Constitu¬tion which is deposited at theForeign Office.

MULTI-LINGUAL STATE: Thenumber of national languages inwhich instruction is given in theU.S.S.R. is now sixty. In theRussian Soviet Federated SocialistRepublic alone, forty-four lan¬guages corresponding to forty-fóurdifferent nationalities are used.The Russian language is used inall schools of the Soviet Union asfrom the third year.

34

ALL MEN

ARE BROTHERS

LIFE AND THOUGHTS OF

MAHATMA GANDHI

AS TOLD

IN HIS OWN WORDS

Information on something like 75,000 scholarships, fellowships, travelgrants and other types of awards offered for study abroad in 1958/59 isgiven in Volume X of Study Abroad: International Handbook of Fellow¬ships, Scholarships and Educational Exchange which is now available.

This handy reference work, published annually by Unesco, lists fellow¬ships offered by the United Nations, its Specialized Agencies and otherinternational organizations, and also those given by governments, uni¬versities, cultural and professional associations in 109 countries andterritories. Full details are given on each of these programmes.

In addition, Volume X includes a report on the sixth annual ForeignStudent Survey showing an estimated total of 165*,000 students enrolledfor higher education in countries other than their own. There is alsoa list of organizations in 59 countries offering advisory services andpractical help to persons who wiih to pursue their studies abroad.

Study Abroad is an indispensable reference book for all students,libraries, information centres and foreign student advisers. Price $3.00;15/-stg.; 900 Fr.frs. Trilingual: English-French-Spanish.

UNESCO

Study Abroad

études

à l'étranger

Estudios en el

extranjero

Study AbroadÉtudes à l'étranger

Estudios

en el extranjero

In a new publication, AU Men are Brothers: Life andThoughts of Mahatma Gandhi as told m his own words,Unesco has paid homage to both the person and thewritings of a man whose spiritual influence has extendedthroughout the entire world.

Texts have been selected to appeal to a wide public andto illustrate and make better-known the different aspectsof Gandhi's personality and writings.

Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Vice-President of India, haswritten a short introduction which describes the main

features of the Mahatma's philosophy and his influence infurthering friendship and understanding between peoples.(See page 28 of this issue for selections from All Men AreBrothers.)

This illustrated publication costs: (Paper edition) U.S S2.50;12/6stg.; 750 Fr.frs; (Cloth) U.S.S3.50; 17/6stg.; 1,000 Fr.frs.

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WHERE TO OBTAIN UNESCO PUBLICATIONS

Order from any bookseller, or writedirect to the National Distributor

in your country (See list below ;names of distributors in countries not

listed will be supplied on request).Payment is made in the nationalcurrency ; rates quoted are for anannual subscription to THE UNESCOCOURIER in any one language.

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POLAND. Osrodek RozpowszechmaniaWydawnictw Naukowych PAN, PalacKultury i Nauki, Warsaw. (Zl. 50).

PORTUGAL. Dias & Andrada Lda,

Livrana Portugal, Rua do Carmo 70,Lisbon.

SOUTH AFRICA. Van Schaik's Book¬

store, Libri Building, Church Street. P.O.Box 724. Pretoria. (10/-)

SWEDEN. AfB CE. Fntzes, Kungl.Hovbokhandel, Fredsgatan 2, Stockholm16. (Sw.kr. 7.50)

SWITZERLAND. Europa Verlag, 5Rämistrasse, Zurich.Payot, 40 rue du Marché, Geneva CCP.1-236. (frs. S. 6.50)

THAILAND. Suksapan Panit, Mansion9, Rajdamnern Avenue, Bangkok.

TURKEY. Librairie Hachette, 469 Isti-klal Caddesi, Beyoglu, Istanbul.

UNITED KINGDOM. H.M. StationeryOffice, P.O. Box 5 69, London, S.E. I . ( I 0/-)

UNITED STATES. Unesco Publications

Center, 801 Third Avenue, New York,22, N.Y. ($3 00 ) and (except periodicals).Columbia University Press, 2960 Broad¬way, New York, 27, N.Y.

U. S. S. R. Mezhdunarodnaia Kniga,Moscow. G-200.

YUGOSLAVIA. Jugoslovenska Knjiga,Teraziie 27/11, Belgrade.

CONTINENT ABUILDING. In an area of some 17 million

square miles, or less than a third of all the land surface of the

globe, Asia houses about 55% of the world's populationover1,400 million people. With its huge manpower resources

© Venkatesh, Pondicherry

and its growing knowledge of technology, Asia today is inthe throes of vast changes whose impact will be world¬wide. Photo shows workers climbing a bamboo scaffolding-light, lasting and economicalon a building project in India.

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